Self-aggregation of clouds in conditionally unstable moist convection.

ABSTRACT: The behavior of moist Rayleigh-Bénard convection is investigated using a Boussinesq model with a simplified thermodynamics for phase transitions. This idealized configuration makes the problem accessible to high-resolution three-dimensional direct numerical simulations without small-scale parameterizations of the turbulence for extended layers with aspect ratios up to 64. Our study is focused on the frequently observed conditionally unstable environment that is stably stratified for unsaturated air, but is unstable for cloudy air. We find that no sharp threshold for the transition to convective turbulence exists, a situation similar to wall-bounded shear flows. Rather, the transition depends on the amplitude of the initial perturbation of the quiescent equilibrium and on the aspect ratio o

SUBMITTER: Pauluis O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3150952 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature