Convective available potential energy

About: Convective available potential energy is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 936 publications have been published within this topic receiving 43773 citations. The topic is also known as: CAPE.

Three-Dimensional Cloud-System Modeling of GATE Convection

Abstract: Deep convection and its associated mesoscale circulations are modeled using a three-dimensional elastic model with bulk microphysics and interactive radiation for a composite easterly wave from the Global Atmospheric Research Program Atlantic Tropical Experiment. The energy and moisture budgets, large-scale heat sources and moisture sinks, microphysics, and radiation are examined. The modeled cloud system undergoes a life cycle dominated by deep convection in its early stages, followed by an upper-tropospheric mesoscale circulation. The large-scale heat sources and moisture sinks associated with the convective system agree broadly with diagnoses from field observations. The modeled upper-tropospheric moisture exceeds observed values. Strong radiative cooling at the top of the mesoscale circulation can produce overturning there. Qualitative features of observed changes in large-scale convective available potential energy and convective inhibition are found in the model integrations, although quantitative magnitudes can differ, especially for convective inhibition. Radiation exerts a strong influence on the microphysical properties of the cloud system. The three-dimensional integrations exhibit considerably less sporadic temporal behavior than corresponding two-dimensional integrations. While the third dimension is less important over timescales longer than the duration of a phase of an easterly wave in the lower and middle troposphere, it enables stronger interactions between radiation and dynamics in the upper-tropospheric mesoscale circulation over a substantial fraction of the life cycle of the convective system.

Estimations of CIN and LFC Associated with Tornadic and Nontornadic Supercells

Abstract: It is generally understood that tornadoes are less likely in environments where surface-based instability is absent and the only convective available potential energy (CAPE) is from elevated parcels originating well above the surface. However, little research has been done to examine tornado occurrence in environments where surface-based CAPE is clearly present, but located above a deep layer of surface-based convective inhibition (CIN) associated with a relatively high level of free convection (LFC) heights. A database of 518 model analysis soundings was collected during 2001–03 from recent versions of the rapid update cycle (RUC) analysis and forecast system. All model sounding profiles were in proximity to selected supercell storms associated primarily with tornado warnings, and were “nonelevated” with surface-based CAPE present. This database is used to examine CIN and LFC to determine environments where instability from mixed-layer and surface-based parcels was associated with significant ne...

The role of shallow convection in the water and energy cycles of the atmosphere

Abstract: The Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM4) is used to study the role of shallow convection in the hydrologic and energy cycles of the atmosphere. Sensitivity tests with AGCM4 show a marked effect of the parameterization of shallow convection in the model. In particular, including the parameterization of shallow convection produces considerably enhanced vertical mixing and decreased stratiform cloud amounts in the lower subtropical atmosphere over the oceans. The differences in simulated stratiform cloud amounts are associated with a change in the globally averaged outgoing shortwave radiative flux at the top of the atmosphere of about 11 W m−2. Additionally, precipitation rates are considerably reduced for stratiform clouds and enhanced for convective clouds in the subtropics, if the parameterization of shallow convection is included in the model. Additional tests show that the simulated responses in cloud amounts and precipitation to the treatment of shallow convection are robust. Additional simulations with modified closures for deep convection and other changes to the treatment of convection in the model still lead to similar responses of the model results.

A GCSS model intercomparison for a tropical squall line observed during TOGA-COARE. II: Intercomparison of single-column models and a cloud-resolving model

Abstract: This paper presents single-column model (SCM) simulations of a tropical squall-line case observed during the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment of the Tropical Ocean/Global Atmosphere Programme. This case-study was part of an international model intercomparison project organized by Working Group 4 ‘Precipitating Convective Cloud Systems’ of the GEWEX (Global Energy and Water-cycle Experiment) Cloud System Study. Eight SCM groups using different deep-convection parametrizations participated in this project. The SCMs were forced by temperature and moisture tendencies that had been computed from a reference cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulation using open boundary conditions. The comparison of the SCM results with the reference CRM simulation provided insight into the ability of current convection and cloud schemes to represent organized convection. The CRM results enabled a detailed evaluation of the SCMs in terms of the thermodynamic structure and the convective mass flux of the system, the latter being closely related to the surface convective precipitation. It is shown that the SCMs could reproduce reasonably well the time evolution of the surface convective and stratiform precipitation, the convective mass flux, and the thermodynamic structure of the squall-line system. The thermodynamic structure simulated by the SCMs depended on how the models partitioned the precipitation between convective and stratiform. However, structural differences persisted in the thermodynamic profiles simulated by the SCMs and the CRM. These differences could be attributed to the fact that the total mass flux used to compute the SCM forcing differed from the convective mass flux. The SCMs could not adequately represent these organized mesoscale circulations and the microphysicallradiative forcing associated with the stratiform region. This issue is generally known as the ‘scale-interaction’ problem that can only be properly addressed in fully three-dimensional simulations. Sensitivity simulations run by several groups showed that the time evolution of the surface convective precipitation was considerably smoothed when the convective closure was based on convective available potential energy instead of moisture convergence. Finally, additional SCM simulations without using a convection parametrization indicated that the impact of a convection parametrization in forced SCM runs was more visible in the moisture profiles than in the temperature profiles because convective transport was particularly important in the moisture budget.

Thermodynamic and Radiative Impact of the Correction of Sounding Humidity Bias in the Tropics.

Abstract: Accurate measurements of atmospheric water vapor are crucial to many aspects of climate research and atmospheric science. This paper discusses some of the meteorological implications of a bias discovered in the measurement of water vapor in widely deployed radiosonde systems. This problem apparently arose in the early 1990s and a correction scheme has been recently developed that intends to remove the bias. The correction scheme also includes improvements in the humidity measurements in the upper troposphere and near the surface. This scheme has been applied to data taken during the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean­Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). The impact of the bias on the general stability of the tropical atmosphere to deep convection, as measured by the convective available potential energy (CAPE) and the convective inhibition (CIN), is quite large. On the basis of the uncorrected data set, one might erroneously conclude that it is difficult to trigger deep convection over the region. When the correction is taken into account, the atmosphere over the tropical western Pacific becomes typically unstable to deep convection, with convective instability similar to that measured from aircraft in the vicinity of active convective sytems. Radiative fluxes are also significantly modified. For clear sky conditions, it is found that, on average, the net surface radiative flux increases by 4 W m-2 due to the humidity correction. Under more realistic cloudy conditions, the differences are weaker, but still significant. Changes in radiative fluxes are explained at first order by the the precipitable water increase.