Telescoping views of planetary, synoptic, mesoscale and explicit-convection structure in a nonhydrostatic global GCM with 7km mesh

Abstract:

Visualizations and statistics from a 2-year 7km nonhydrostatic Nature Run of the NASA-Goddard GEOS-5 model will be shown, to illustrate how the crude but explicit convective cells and their mesoscale processes function as coherent entities withing the synoptic and planetary-scale general circulation. Comparisons with coarse-grained data and output from lower-resolution simulations illustrate how parameterizations can carry the same fluxes necessary for general circulation balances, but only as the mean state is distorted in order to cause the parameterizations to produce those fluxes. From these considerations, and from related considerations of outputds of a more homogeneous (cyclic) Giga-LES, we will attempt to draw conclusions about the geophysical importance of coherent cross-scale spatial organization vs. simply having a rich spectrum of scales.