Investigating Links Between Convective Precipitation, Detrainment, and the Large Scale Water Budget

Abstract:

While the importance of deep convection to the large-scale circulation and water budget has long been understood, much of these contributions have yet to be well quantified. Direct observations of detrainment are difficult to acquire, preventing the link between the deep convective and large scale water budgets necessary to close both. A long-standing issue with climate models is the overproduction of convective precipitation. This then affects the large scale circulation through direct links to detrainment, which provides moisture to large scale clouds. Future climate simulations have suggested that convective precipitation may increase in a warmer climate, but it is unknown whether this effect may be mitigated or exacerbated with a better representation of convective precipition and detrainment in these models.

With cloud resolving model simulations of deep convection, we quantify the water budgets and the links between convective precipitation, convective detrainment, and the large scale. Examining the behavior of deep convective clouds in varying environments can help to constrain these processes in climate models and provide some clue to how convection may change in a warming climate.