Moist Orographic Convection: Physical Mechanisms and Links to Surface-Exchange Processes
TLDR
In this article, the authors review the current understanding of moist orographic convection and its regulation by surface exchange processes, including large-scale moistening and ascent, positive surface sensible and latent heat fluxes, and differential advection.Abstract:
This paper reviews the current understanding of moist orographic convection and its regulation by surface-exchange processes. Such convection tends to develop when and where moist instability coincides with sufficient terrain-induced ascent to locally overcome convective inhibition. The terrain-induced ascent can be owing to mechanical (airflow over or around an obstacle) and/or thermal (differential heating over sloping terrain) forcing. For the former, the location of convective initiation depends on the dynamical flow regime. In “unblocked” flows that ascend the barrier, the convection tends to initiate over the windward slopes, while in “blocked” flows that detour around the barrier, the convection tends to initiate upstream and/or downstream of the high terrain where impinging flows split and rejoin, respectively. Processes that destabilize the upstream flow for mechanically forced moist convection include large-scale moistening and ascent, positive surface sensible and latent heat fluxes, and differential advection in baroclinic zones. For thermally forced flows, convective initiation is driven by thermally direct circulations with sharp updrafts over or downwind of the mountain crest (daytime) or foot (nighttime). Along with the larger-scale background flow, local evapotranspiration and transport of moisture, as well as thermodynamic heterogeneities over the complex terrain, regulate moist instability in such events. Longstanding limitations in the quantitative understanding of related processes, including both convective preconditioning and initiation, must be overcome to improve the prediction of this convection, and its collective effects, in weather and climate models.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Exchange Processes in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Over Mountainous Terrain
Stefano Serafin,Bianca Adler,Joan Cuxart,Stephan F. J. De Wekker,Alexander Gohm,Branko Grisogono,Norbert Kalthoff,Daniel J. Kirshbaum,Mathias W. Rotach,Jürg Schmidli,Ivana Stiperski,Željko Večenaj,Dino Zardi +12 more
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the key challenges relevant to the understanding of exchange processes in the mountain boundary layer and outlines possible research priorities for the future is presented. But the authors do not consider the impact of slope and valley breezes on the structure of the convective boundary layer, and the role of intermittent mixing and wave-turbulence interaction in the stable boundary layer.
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Satellite Remote Sensing of Precipitation and the Terrestrial Water Cycle in a Changing Climate
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Crossing multiple gray zones in the transition from mesoscale to microscale simulation over complex terrain
Fotini Katopodes Chow,Christoph Schär,Nikolina Ban,Katherine A. Lundquist,Linda Schlemmer,Xiaoming Shi +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of mesoscale to microscale modeling over complex terrain as it traverses multiple so-called gray zones is presented, where the focus is on horizontal grid resolutions from ∼10 km to ∼10 m.
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Current Challenges in Understanding and Predicting Transport and Exchange in the Atmosphere over Mountainous Terrain
Manuela Lehner,Mathias W. Rotach +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a new definition of the atmospheric boundary layer in mountainous terrain, a mountain boundary layer (MBL), is defined, and the major current challenges in measuring, understanding, and eventually parameterizing the relevant transport processes and the overall exchange between the MBL and the free atmosphere are summarized.
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Climate Changes and Their Elevational Patterns in the Mountains of the World
TL;DR: In this article , both in situ station temperature and precipitation data from mountain regions, and global gridded data sets (observations, reanalyses, and model hindcasts) are employed to examine the elevation dependency of temperature changes since 1900.
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