A Simple Lagrangian Parcel Model for the Initiation of Summer-time Mesoscale Convective Systems over the Central United States
Abstract
Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) account for more than 50% of summertime precipitation over the central United States and have a significant impact on local weather and hydrologic cycle. It is hypothesized that the inadequate treatment of MCSs is responsible for the long-standing warm and dry bias over the central United States in coarse-resolution general circulation model (GCM) simulations. In particular, a better understanding of MCS initiation is still lacking. Here a single-column Lagrangian parcel model is first developed to simulate the basic features of a rising parcel. This simple model demonstrates the collective effects of boundary layer moistening and dynamical lifting in triggering convective initiation and reproduces successfully its early afternoon peak with surface equivalent potential temperature as a controlling factor. It also predicts that convection is harder to trigger in the future climate under global warming, consistent with the results from convection-permitting regional climate simulations. Then, a multicolumn model that includes an array of single-column models aligned in the east–west direction and incorporates idealized cold pool interaction mechanisms is developed. The multicolumn model captures readily the cold pool–induced upscale growth feature in MCS genesis from initially scattered convection that is organized into a mesoscale cluster in a few hours.more »
- Authors:
-
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- Contributing Org.:
- BNL, ANL, ORNL
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1827073
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1830224
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-162977
Journal ID: ISSN 0022-4928
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 78; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 0022-4928
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; North America; Deep convection; Mesoscale systems; Summer/warm season; Moisture/moisture budget; Single column models
Citation Formats
Yang, Qiu, Leung, L. Ruby, Feng, Zhe, Song, Fengfei, and Chen, Xingchao. A Simple Lagrangian Parcel Model for the Initiation of Summer-time Mesoscale Convective Systems over the Central United States. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1175/jas-d-21-0136.1.
Yang, Qiu, Leung, L. Ruby, Feng, Zhe, Song, Fengfei, & Chen, Xingchao. A Simple Lagrangian Parcel Model for the Initiation of Summer-time Mesoscale Convective Systems over the Central United States. United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/jas-d-21-0136.1
Yang, Qiu, Leung, L. Ruby, Feng, Zhe, Song, Fengfei, and Chen, Xingchao. Thu .
"A Simple Lagrangian Parcel Model for the Initiation of Summer-time Mesoscale Convective Systems over the Central United States". United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/jas-d-21-0136.1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1827073.
@article{osti_1827073,
title = {A Simple Lagrangian Parcel Model for the Initiation of Summer-time Mesoscale Convective Systems over the Central United States},
author = {Yang, Qiu and Leung, L. Ruby and Feng, Zhe and Song, Fengfei and Chen, Xingchao},
abstractNote = {Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) account for more than 50% of summertime precipitation over the central United States and have a significant impact on local weather and hydrologic cycle. It is hypothesized that the inadequate treatment of MCSs is responsible for the long-standing warm and dry bias over the central United States in coarse-resolution general circulation model (GCM) simulations. In particular, a better understanding of MCS initiation is still lacking. Here a single-column Lagrangian parcel model is first developed to simulate the basic features of a rising parcel. This simple model demonstrates the collective effects of boundary layer moistening and dynamical lifting in triggering convective initiation and reproduces successfully its early afternoon peak with surface equivalent potential temperature as a controlling factor. It also predicts that convection is harder to trigger in the future climate under global warming, consistent with the results from convection-permitting regional climate simulations. Then, a multicolumn model that includes an array of single-column models aligned in the east–west direction and incorporates idealized cold pool interaction mechanisms is developed. The multicolumn model captures readily the cold pool–induced upscale growth feature in MCS genesis from initially scattered convection that is organized into a mesoscale cluster in a few hours. It also highlights the crucial role of lifting effects due to cold pool collision and spreading, subsidence effect, and gust front propagation speed in controlling the final size of mesoscale clusters and cold pool regions. This simple model should be useful for understanding fundamental mechanisms of MCS initiation and providing guidance for improving MCS simulations in GCMs.},
doi = {10.1175/jas-d-21-0136.1},
journal = {Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences},
number = 11,
volume = 78,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Oct 14 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Thu Oct 14 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
What favors convective aggregation and why?: WHAT FAVORS CONVECTIVE AGGREGATION
journal, July 2015
- Muller, Caroline; Bony, Sandrine
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 42, Issue 13
Climatology of summer midtropospheric perturbations in the U.S. northern plains. Part I: influence on northwest flow severe weather outbreaks
journal, November 2009
- Wang, Shih-Yu; Chen, Tsing-Chang; Correia, James
- Climate Dynamics, Vol. 36, Issue 3-4
Role of Vertical Structure of Convective Heating in MJO Simulation in NCAR CAM5.3
journal, September 2017
- Cao, Guyu; Zhang, Guang J.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 30, Issue 18
Can the Multiscale Modeling Framework (MMF) Simulate the MCS‐Associated Precipitation Over the Central United States?
journal, December 2019
- Lin, Guangxing; Fan, Jiwen; Feng, Zhe
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 11, Issue 12
Mechanisms of convective cloud organization by cold pools over tropical warm ocean during the AMIE/DYNAMO field campaign
journal, April 2015
- Feng, Zhe; Hagos, Samson; Rowe, Angela K.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 7, Issue 2
CAUSES: Attribution of Surface Radiation Biases in NWP and Climate Models near the U.S. Southern Great Plains
journal, April 2018
- Van Weverberg, K.; Morcrette, C. J.; Petch, J.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 123, Issue 7
Diagnosis of the summertime warm and dry bias over the U.S. Southern Great Plains in the GFDL climate model using a weather forecasting approach: GFDL CLIMATE MODEL SUMMERTIME BIAS
journal, September 2006
- Klein, Stephen A.; Jiang, Xianan; Boyle, Jim
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 18
Convective quasi-equilibrium in midlatitude continental environment and its effect on convective parameterization
journal, January 2002
- Zhang, Guang J.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 107, Issue D14
Crucial Roles of Eastward Propagating Environments in the Summer MCS Initiation Over the U.S. Great Plains
journal, August 2021
- Song, Fengfei; Feng, Zhe; Leung, L. Ruby
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 126, Issue 16
Detailed Investigation of the Self-Aggregation of Convection in Cloud-Resolving Simulations
journal, August 2012
- Muller, Caroline J.; Held, Isaac M.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 69, Issue 8
The Detection and Significance of Diurnal Pressure and Potential Vorticity Anomalies East of the Rockies
journal, September 2010
- Li, Yanping; Smith, Ronald B.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 67, Issue 9
Seasonally dependent responses of subtropical highs and tropical rainfall to anthropogenic warming
journal, August 2018
- Song, Fengfei; Leung, L. Ruby; Lu, Jian
- Nature Climate Change, Vol. 8, Issue 9
Circling in on Convective Organization
journal, June 2019
- Haerter, Jan O.; Böing, Steven J.; Henneberg, Olga
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 12
Interpreting the Diurnal Cycle of Clouds and Precipitation in the ARM GoAmazon Observations: Shallow to Deep Convection Transition
journal, March 2021
- Tian, Yang; Zhang, Yunyan; Klein, Stephen A.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 126, Issue 5
Triggered Convection, Gravity Waves, and the MJO: A Shallow-Water Model
journal, August 2013
- Yang, Da; Ingersoll, Andrew P.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 70, Issue 8
On large-scale circulations in convecting atmospheres
journal, July 1994
- Emanuel, Kerry A.; David Neelin, J.; Bretherton, Christopher S.
- Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 120, Issue 519
Impact of the convection triggering function on single-column model simulations
journal, June 2000
- Xie, Shaocheng; Zhang, Minghua
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 105, Issue D11
Linking Flood Frequency With Mesoscale Convective Systems in the US
journal, May 2021
- Hu, Huancui; Feng, Zhe; Leung, Lai‐Yung Ruby
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 48, Issue 9
The mesoscale convection life cycle: Building block or prototype for large-scale tropical waves?
journal, December 2006
- Mapes, Brian; Tulich, Stefan; Lin, Jialin
- Dynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans, Vol. 42, Issue 1-4
ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1940 to present
dataset, January 2023
- Hersbach, H.; Bell, B.; Berrisford, P.
- Copernicus Climate Change Service
Clausius–Clapeyron Scaling of Peak CAPE in Continental Convective Storm Environments
journal, August 2017
- Agard, Vince; Emanuel, Kerry
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 74, Issue 9
Mesoscale convective systems
journal, January 2004
- Houze, Robert A.
- Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 42, Issue 4
Convective Initiation near the Andes in Subtropical South America
journal, May 2016
- Rasmussen, K. L.; Houze, R. A.
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 144, Issue 6
A Theory for Long-Lived Mesoscale Convective Systems
journal, December 1990
- Raymond, D. J.; Jiang, H.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 47, Issue 24
Entrainment versus Dilution in Tropical Deep Convection
journal, November 2017
- Hannah, Walter M.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 74, Issue 11
Climatology of summer midtropospheric perturbations in the US northern plains. Part II: large-scale effects of the Rocky Mountains on genesis
journal, March 2010
- Wang, Shih-Yu; Chen, Tsing-Chang; Takle, Eugene S.
- Climate Dynamics, Vol. 36, Issue 7-8
Evaluating the Conservation of Energy Variables in Simulations of Deep Moist Convection
journal, October 2021
- Peters, John M.; Chavas, Daniel R.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 78, Issue 10
An Idealized Physical Model for the Severe Convective Storm Environmental Sounding
journal, February 2021
- Chavas, Daniel R.; Dawson II, Daniel T.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 78, Issue 2
Boundary Layer Diabatic Processes, the Virtual Effect, and Convective Self‐Aggregation
journal, September 2018
- Yang, Da
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 10, Issue 9
100 Years of Research on Mesoscale Convective Systems
journal, January 2018
- Houze, Robert A.
- Meteorological Monographs, Vol. 59
Influence of entrainment on the thermal stratification in simulations of radiative-convective equilibrium: ENTRAINMENT AND THERMAL STRATIFICATION
journal, August 2013
- Singh, Martin S.; O'Gorman, Paul A.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 40, Issue 16
Organizational Modes of Midlatitude Mesoscale Convective Systems
journal, October 2000
- Parker, Matthew D.; Johnson, Richard H.
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 128, Issue 10
Initial Results From the Super‐Parameterized E3SM
journal, January 2020
- Hannah, W. M.; Jones, C. R.; Hillman, B. R.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 12, Issue 1
The Cumulus Parameterization Problem: Past, Present, and Future
journal, July 2004
- Arakawa, Akio
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 17, Issue 13
The Association of the Elevated Mixed Layer with Significant Severe Weather Events in the Northeastern United States*
journal, August 2010
- Banacos, Peter C.; Ekster, Michael L.
- Weather and Forecasting, Vol. 25, Issue 4
The Role of Environmental Shear and Thermodynamic Conditions in Determining the Structure and Evolution of Mesoscale Convective Systems during TOGA COARE
journal, December 1998
- LeMone, Margaret A.; Zipser, Edward J.; Trier, Stanley B.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 55, Issue 23
The Relation between Nocturnal MCS Evolution and Its Outflow Boundaries in the Stable Boundary Layer: An Observational Study of the 15 July 2015 MCS in PECAN
journal, September 2018
- Grasmick, Coltin; Geerts, Bart; Turner, David D.
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 146, Issue 10
MSE Minus CAPE is the True Conserved Variable for an Adiabatically Lifted Parcel
journal, September 2015
- Romps, David M.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 72, Issue 9
Gravity Waves in Shear and Implications for Organized Convection
journal, September 2009
- Stechmann, Samuel N.; Majda, Andrew J.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 66, Issue 9
Observed and model-simulated diurnal cycles of precipitation over the contiguous United States
journal, March 1999
- Dai, Aiguo; Giorgi, Filippo; Trenberth, Kevin E.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 104, Issue D6
Minimal models for precipitating turbulent convection
journal, February 2013
- Hernandez-Duenas, Gerardo; Majda, Andrew J.; Smith, Leslie M.
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 717
Understanding and Improving the Scale Dependence of Trigger Functions for Convective Parameterization Using Cloud-Resolving Model Data
journal, September 2018
- Song, Fengfei; Zhang, Guang J.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 31, Issue 18
Evaluation of Mesoscale Convective Systems in Climate Simulations: Methodological Development and Results from MPAS-CAM over the United States
journal, April 2021
- Feng, Zhe; Song, Fengfei; Sakaguchi, Koichi
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 34, Issue 7
Vertical structure and physical processes of the Madden-Julian oscillation: Exploring key model physics in climate simulations: KEY PHYSICS IN MODELING THE MJO
journal, May 2015
- Jiang, Xianan; Waliser, Duane E.; Xavier, Prince K.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 120, Issue 10
Climate of the weakly-forced yet high-impact convective storms throughout the Ohio River Valley and Mid-Atlantic United States
journal, September 2018
- Pokharel, Binod; Wang, S. -Y. Simon; Meyer, Jonathan
- Climate Dynamics, Vol. 52, Issue 9-10
Improved Diurnal Cycle of Precipitation in E3SM With a Revised Convective Triggering Function
journal, July 2019
- Xie, Shaocheng; Wang, Yi‐Chi; Lin, Wuyin
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 11, Issue 7
Convective Initiation at the Dryline: A Modeling Study
journal, June 1997
- Ziegler, Conrad L.; Lee, Tsengdar J.; Pielke, Roger A.
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 125, Issue 6
Evaluation of Cumulus and Microphysics Parameterizations in WRF across the Convective Gray Zone
journal, August 2019
- Jeworrek, Julia; West, Gregory; Stull, Roland
- Weather and Forecasting, Vol. 34, Issue 4
Understanding the Distinct Impacts of MCS and Non-MCS Rainfall on the Surface Water Balance in the Central United States Using a Numerical Water-Tagging Technique
journal, October 2020
- Hu, Huancui; Leung, L. Ruby; Feng, Zhe
- Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 21, Issue 10
Convective self-aggregation, cold pools, and domain size: AGGREGATION, COLD POOLS, AND DOMAIN SIZE
journal, March 2013
- Jeevanjee, Nadir; Romps, David M.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 40, Issue 5
Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Large-Scale Environments of Mesoscale Convective Systems East of the Rocky Mountains
journal, November 2019
- Feng, Zhe; Houze, Robert A.; Leung, L. Ruby
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 32, Issue 21
Improved Magnus Form Approximation of Saturation Vapor Pressure
journal, April 1996
- Alduchov, Oleg A.; Eskridge, Robert E.
- Journal of Applied Meteorology, Vol. 35, Issue 4
Convection Initiation Caused by Heterogeneous Low-Level Jets over the Great Plains
journal, July 2018
- Gebauer, Joshua G.; Shapiro, Alan; Fedorovich, Evgeni
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 146, Issue 8
Causes of model dry and warm bias over central U.S. and impact on climate projections
journal, October 2017
- Lin, Yanluan; Dong, Wenhao; Zhang, Minghua
- Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1
Continental-scale convection-permitting modeling of the current and future climate of North America
journal, August 2016
- Liu, Changhai; Ikeda, Kyoko; Rasmussen, Roy
- Climate Dynamics, Vol. 49, Issue 1-2
Mechanisms for convection triggering by cold pools
journal, March 2015
- Torri, Giuseppe; Kuang, Zhiming; Tian, Yang
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 42, Issue 6
Simulations of the Tropical General Circulation with a Multiscale Global Model
journal, April 2016
- Randall, David; DeMott, Charlotte; Stan, Cristiana
- Meteorological Monographs, Vol. 56
Improving Trigger Functions for Convective Parameterization Schemes Using GOAmazon Observations
journal, November 2017
- Song, Fengfei; Zhang, Guang J.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 30, Issue 21
Climatology of Severe Local Storm Environments and Synoptic-Scale Features over North America in ERA5 Reanalysis and CAM6 Simulation
journal, October 2020
- Li, Funing; Chavas, Daniel R.; Reed, Kevin A.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 33, Issue 19
Changes in the convective population and thermodynamic environments in convection-permitting regional climate simulations over the United States
journal, November 2017
- Rasmussen, K. L.; Prein, A. F.; Rasmussen, R. M.
- Climate Dynamics
Modulation of the Diurnal Cycle of Warm-Season Precipitation by Short-Wave Troughs
journal, June 2013
- Tuttle, John D.; Davis, Chris A.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 70, Issue 6
An Energy-Balance Analysis of Deep Convective Self-Aggregation above Uniform SST
journal, December 2005
- Bretherton, Christopher S.; Blossey, Peter N.; Khairoutdinov, Marat
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 62, Issue 12
A Conceptual Spectral Plume Model for Understanding Tropical Temperature Profile and Convective Updraft Velocities
journal, August 2019
- Zhou, Wenyu; Xie, Shang-Ping
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 76, Issue 9
A cloud resolving model as a cloud parameterization in the NCAR Community Climate System Model: Preliminary results
journal, September 2001
- Khairoutdinov, Marat F.; Randall, David A.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 28, Issue 18
Particle‐Based Tracking of Cold Pool Gust Fronts
journal, May 2020
- Henneberg, Olga; Meyer, Bettina; Haerter, Jan O.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 12, Issue 5
Convective self-aggregation feedbacks in near-global cloud-resolving simulations of an aquaplanet: AGGREGATION FEEDBACKS IN NEAR-GLOBAL CRM
journal, November 2015
- Bretherton, Christopher S.; Khairoutdinov, Marat F.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 7, Issue 4
Entrainment and detrainment in cumulus convection: an overview
journal, June 2012
- de Rooy, Wim C.; Bechtold, Peter; Fröhlich, Kristina
- Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 139, Issue 670
Simulation, Modeling, and Dynamically Based Parameterization of Organized Tropical Convection for Global Climate Models
journal, May 2017
- Moncrieff, Mitchell W.; Liu, Changhai; Bogenschutz, Peter
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 74, Issue 5
Dry soils can intensify mesoscale convective systems
journal, August 2020
- Klein, Cornelia; Taylor, Christopher M.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 117, Issue 35
A Real-Data Numerical Study of the Development of Precipitation along the Edge of an Elevated Mixed Layer
journal, January 1987
- Lakhtakia, Mercedes N.; Warner, Thomas T.
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 115, Issue 1
Introduction to CAUSES: Description of Weather and Climate Models and Their Near‐Surface Temperature Errors in 5 day Hindcasts Near the Southern Great Plains
journal, March 2018
- Morcrette, C. J.; Van Weverberg, K.; Ma, H. ‐Y.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 123, Issue 5
Do Undiluted Convective Plumes Exist in the Upper Tropical Troposphere?
journal, February 2010
- Romps, David M.; Kuang, Zhiming
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 67, Issue 2
Structure and Evolution of Mesoscale Convective Systems: Sensitivity to Cloud Microphysics in Convection‐Permitting Simulations Over the United States
journal, July 2018
- Feng, Zhe; Leung, L. Ruby; Houze, Robert A.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 10, Issue 7
Contrasting Spring and Summer Large-Scale Environments Associated with Mesoscale Convective Systems over the U.S. Great Plains
journal, October 2019
- Song, Fengfei; Feng, Zhe; Leung, L. Ruby
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 32, Issue 20
Gregarious Tropical Convection
journal, July 1993
- Mapes, Brian E.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 50, Issue 13
Satellite Inference of Thermals and Cloud-Base Updraft Speeds Based on Retrieved Surface and Cloud-Base Temperatures
journal, June 2015
- Zheng, Youtong; Rosenfeld, Daniel; Li, Zhanqing
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 72, Issue 6
An Improved Framework for Superparameterization
journal, August 2004
- Grabowski, Wojciech W.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 61, Issue 15
The Initiation of Moist Convection at the Dryline: Forecasting Issues from aCase Study Perspective
journal, December 1998
- Ziegler, Conrad L.; Rasmussen, Erik N.
- Weather and Forecasting, Vol. 13, Issue 4