2019/08/10 by Tom Beucler, Tristan H. Abbott, Tristan Abbott +4 · 11 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advection #Atmospheric models #Climate variability and models #Convection #Energy budget #Equator #Extratropical cyclone #Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations #Scale (ratio) #Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research #Variance (accounting) #Water vapor #physics.ao-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1029/2019gl084130
published in Geophysical Research Letters 46(17-18), 10589-10598 (American Geophysical Union) · 15 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to "Geophysical Research Letters"
arxiv created 2019/08/10 · openalex publication_date 2019/08/26 · openalex created_date 2019/09/05 · arxiv updated 2019/09/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract Idealized convection‐permitting simulations of radiative‐convective equilibrium have become a popular tool for understanding the physical processes leading to horizontal variability of tropical water vapor and rainfall. However, the applicability of idealized simulations to nature is still unclear given that important processes are typically neglected, such as lateral water vapor advection by extratropical intrusions, or interactive ocean coupling. Here, we exploit spectral analysis to compactly summarize the multiscale processes supporting convective aggregation. By applying this framework to high‐resolution reanalysis data and satellite observations in addition to idealized simulations, we compare convective‐aggregation processes across horizontal scales and data sets. The results affirm the validity of the radiative‐convective equilibrium simulations as an analogy to the real world. Column moist static energy tendencies share similar signs and scale selectivity in convection‐permitting models and observations: Radiation increases variance at wavelengths above 1,000 km, while advection damps variance across wavelengths, and surface fluxes mostly reduce variance between 1,000 and 10,000 km.