Estimating the gross moist stability in shallow and deep convection

Abstract:

Gross moist stability has been used to study the link between tropical deep convection and large scale circulation in a moist static energy (MSE) budget. Here we aim to calculate the gross moist stability from more realistic profiles of vertical velocity and extend it beyond deep convection, adding shallow convection. Based on a principal component analysis, we were able to decompose the vertical velocity into two leading modes, which are dominated by deep and shallow convection, respectively. According to the deep and shallow modes, we calculate the gross moist stability for these two modes and discuss the roles of deep and shallow convection in the MSE budget. The gross moist stability of deep convection tends to be positive in the tropics, while that of shallow convection is negative over most areas of the tropics. This implies that deep convection exports MSE to stabilize the atmosphere and shallow convection imports MSE to enhance deep convection and destabilize the atmosphere. Based on the spatial distribution, moisture tends to reduce the gross moist stability of deep convection, while dry static energy has little impact. Deeper deep convection tends to have greater gross moist stability. For shallow convection, on the other hand, the gross moist stability is affected not only by low-level moisture but also mid-level moisture. Both moister low-level and drier mid-level moisture reduce the gross moist stability of shallow convection. Greater low-level dry static energy, which is associated with warmer sea surface temperature, also tends to reduce gross moist stability.