Comparative Microphysical Characteristics of Numerically Simulated Warm-Season Thunderstorms in Diverse Climatic Regimes

首席研究员将使用现有的三维、时间相关的准可压缩研究云模型来研究暖？从热带到中纬度不同地理环境的季节性深层对流风暴。该项目将研究地理环境对以下与暴雨尺度水循环相关的体积综合特性的影响：总凝结水质量，凝结水池内降水的产生和消耗，特别是水成物类型对质量的分配以及促成它们的单个过程对微物理传输速率的影响。首席研究员最近完成了一个项目，通过模拟和分析北美半干旱高平原和潮湿亚热带地区的雷暴，为这项工作奠定了基础。主要研究人员将把他们的方法扩展到更多的地区，认识到：(a)除了这两个地区之外，已经记录了几个对比鲜明的北美雷暴气候，(b)世界上从热带到中部的其他几个地区。纬度地区会发生特别频繁或强烈的对流风暴，并且(c)在低纬度地区，深海对流已多次被观测到系统地弱于海地，微物理组成也有显著不同。研究人员将调查大约10个地点，这取决于是否能获得适当地代表控制实验的风暴前环境条件的数据。考虑的雷暴环境包括北美亚热带沙漠西南部的夏季季风，热带和亚热带亚洲以及西欧。在不同区域的控制实验中比较模型结果将强调上述体积积分体微物理特性，特别是在风暴成熟阶段它们的分区的时间平均百分比分解。这项研究如果成功，将对中尺度大气动力学知识的进步具有重要意义，并将增加对各种气候条件下对流活动性质的基本认识。

The Principal Investigator will use an existing three-dimensional, time-dependent quasi-compressible research cloud model to study the bulk microphysical structure of warm?season deep convective storms for diverse geographical environments from tropical to mid?latitude. This project will investigate the effects of the geographical environment on the following volume-integrated properties relating to the storm-scale water cycle: the total condensate mass, the production and depletion of the precipitation within this condensate pool, and especially the partitioning of the mass by hydrometeor types and of the microphysical transfer rates by the individual processes contributing to them. A recently completed project by the Principal Investigator has laid a foundation for the work by simulating and analyzing thunderstorms in the semi-arid High Plains of North America and the humid subtropics. The Principal Investigators will extend their approach to substantially more regions in recognition that: (a) several contrasting North American thunderstorm climatologies have been documented for regions other than those two, (b) several other regions of the world from the Tropics through mid?latitudes are subject to especially frequent or intense convective storms, and (c) in low latitudes, deep convection has repeatedly been observed to be systematically weaker at sea than over land, with significantly different microphysical makeup. The researchers will investigate up to approximately ten locations, subject to availability of data suitably representative of pre-storm environmental conditions for the control experiments. Thunderstorm environments under consideration include the summer monsoon of North America's subtropical desert southwest, tropical and subtropical Asia and Western Europe. Comparison of model results among the control experiments for different regions will emphasize the volume-integrated bulk microphysical properties noted above, and especially the time-averaged percentage breakdowns of their partitioning during the mature phase of a storm. The research, if successful, will be significant to the advancement of knowledge in mesoscale atmospheric dynamics and will increase fundamental understanding of the nature of convective activity under various climatic regimes.