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A Large Eddy Simulation Intercomparison Study of Shallow Cumulus Convection

TLDR
In this paper, an intercomparison study on undisturbed trade wind cumulus convection under steadystate conditions as observed during the Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment (BOMEX) with 10 large eddy simulation (LES) models was performed.
Abstract
This paper reports an intercomparison study on undisturbed trade wind cumulus convection under steadystate conditions as observed during the Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment (BOMEX) with 10 large eddy simulation (LES) models. A main objective of this study is to obtain a quantitative assessment of the quality of the turbulent dynamics for this type of boundary layer clouds as produced by the different LES codes. A 6-h simulation shows excellent model-to-model agreement of the observed vertical thermodynamical structure, reasonable agreement of variances and turbulent fluxes, and good agreement of quantities conditionally sampled within the model clouds, such as cloud cover, liquid water, and cloud updraft strength. In the second part of this paper the LES dataset is used to evaluate simple models that are used in parameterizations of current general circulation models (GCMs). Finally, the relation of this work to subsequent LES studies of more complicated regimes is discussed, and guidance is given for the design of future observational studies of shallow cumulus boundary layers.

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The University of Washington Shallow Convection and Moist Turbulence Schemes and Their Impact on Climate Simulations with the Community Atmosphere Model

TL;DR: In this paper, a new version of the University of Washington shallow cumulus parameterization is described, which includes improved treatments of lateral mixing rates into cumulus updrafts, the evaporation of precipitation and of the interaction of cumuli with the underlying subcloud layer, and a treatment of the convective inhibition-based mass-flux closure.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

A Comprehensive Mass Flux Scheme for Cumulus Parameterization in Large-Scale Models

TL;DR: In this paper, a simple spectral cloud ensemble was proposed to provide realistic values of the thermal forcing by convection under various synoptic conditions, such as tropical penetrative convection, tradewind cumuli, and extratropical organized convection.
Journal ArticleDOI

A One-Dimensional Entraining/Detraining Plume Model and Its Application in Convective Parameterization

TL;DR: In this article, a new one-dimensional cloud model is proposed for mesoscale convective parameterization schemes (CPSs), which is unique in its representation of environmental entrainment and updraft detrainment rates.
Journal ArticleDOI

A comprehensive meteorological modeling system?RAMS

TL;DR: In this paper, a range of applications of the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), a comprehensive mesoscale meterological modeling system, are discussed, including large eddy simulations (LES) and simulations of thunderstorms, cumulus fields, mesoscales, convective systems, mid-latitude cirrus clouds, winter storms, mechanically and thermally-forced meso-scale systems, and mesoscopic atmospheric disperision.

The atmospheric general circulation model ECHAM-4: Model description and simulation of present-day climate

TL;DR: In this paper, a detailed description of the fourth generation ECHAM model is presented, which includes a semi-Lagrangian transport scheme for water vapour, cloud water and trace substances, a new radiation scheme (ECMWF) with modifications concerning the water vapor continuum, cloud optical properties and greenhouse gases.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Large-Eddy-Simulation Model for the Study of Planetary Boundary-Layer Turbulence

TL;DR: In this paper, a new large-eddy-simulation (LES) model code which uses a mixed pseudospectral finite-difference method was developed and tested with a simple vortex flow and with the Wangara day-33 data.
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