A refined view of vertical mass transport by cumulus convection

被引：51

作者：

Jonker, Harm J. J. ^{[1
]}

Heus, Thijs ^{[1
]}

Sullivan, Peter P. ^{[2
]}

机构：

[1] Delft Univ Technol, Dept Multiscale Phys, NL-2600 GA Delft, Netherlands

[2] Natl Ctr Atmospher Res, Boulder, CO 80307 USA

来源：

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS | 2008年 / 35卷 / 07期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1029/2007GL032606

中图分类号：

P [天文学、地球科学];

学科分类号：

07 ;

摘要：

The purpose of this letter is to show that the traditional view of transport by shallow cumulus clouds needs important refinement. On the basis of a straightforward geometrical analysis of Large Eddy Simulation results of shallow cumulus clouds, we conclude (1) that the upward mass transport by clouds is strongly dominated by regions close to the edge of clouds rather than by the core region of clouds and (2) that the downward mass transport is dominated by processes just outside the cloud. The latter finding contradicts the accepted view of a uniformly descending dry environment. We therefore advocate a refined view which distinguishes between the near-cloud environment and the distant environment. The near-cloud environment is characterized by coherent descending motions, whereas the distant environment is rather quiescent and plays no significant role in vertical transport.

引用

页数：5