Organized Convection Parameterization for the ITCZ

Abstract:

Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) are of fundamental importance in the dynamics of the atmospheric circulation and the climate system.
They are often observed to develop over significant terrain, in ambient shear flows in midlatitudes and embedded within the Madden Julian oscillation (MJO) and convectively coupled equatorial wave (CCEW) envelopes and in the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Yet, general circulation models (GCM) fail to resolve these systems and the underlying convective parameterizations are not directed to represent such flows. Shear-parallel MCSs, which are common in the ITCZ, have a three-dimensional structure and as such present a serious modelling challenge. Here, a previously developed multicloud model (MCM) is modified to parameterize MCSs. One of the main modifications is the parameterization of stratiform condensation to capture extended stratiform outflows, which characterize MCSs, due to strong upper level jets. Linear analysis shows that under the influence of a typical double African and equatorial jet shear flow, this modification results in an additional new scale-selective instability peaking at the meso-alpha scale of roughly 400 km. Nonlinear simulations conducted with the modified MCM on a 400 km by 400 km doubly periodic domain, without rotation, resulted in the spontaneous transition from a quasi-two dimensional shear perpendicular convective system, consistent with linear theory, to a fully three dimensional flow structure. The simulation is characterized by shear parallel bands of convection, moving slowly eastward, embedded in stratiform systems that expand perpendicularly and propagate westward with the upper level jet. The mean circulation and the implications for the domain averaged vertical transport of momentum and potential temperature are discussed.