Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation Interactions in the Context of Convective Self-Aggregation.

ABSTRACT: We investigate the sensitivity of self-aggregated radiative-convective-equilibrium cloud-resolving model simulations to the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration. Experiments were conducted on a long (2,000-km × 120-km) channel domain, allowing the emergence of multiple convective clusters and dry regions of subsidence. Increasing the CCN concentration leads to increased moisture in the dry regions, increased midlevel and upper level clouds, decreased radiative cooling, and decreased precipitation. We find that these trends follow from a decrease in the strength of the self-aggregation as measured by the moist static energy (MSE) variance. In our simulations, precipitation is correlated, both locally and in total, with the distribution of MSE anomalies. We thus quantify changes in

SUBMITTER: Beydoun H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6582609 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature