Processing of Chemical Constituents by Deep Convection

Through a multitude of processes, deep convection plays an important role in redistributing chemical constituents. Convective transport, scavenging by water and ice, chemical reactions, and radiative fluxes all play a role in determining the composition of the outflow region of the convection into the upper troposphere. Ozone production in the upper troposphere will depend on its precursors, which are affected by deep convection in different ways. Nitrogen oxides are produced from lightning occurring in thunderstorms, while hydrogen oxides are dependent on their source reservoirs: peroxides and aldehydes. These HOx precursors can be transported from the boundary layer to the upper troposphere, and/or scavenged by the cloud particles and rained out. Cloud-scale numerical simulations of cloud physics and chemistry can provide insight on the processes that are key to contributing to anvil composition and rain out of species. We examine the role of these processes in simulations of different convective storms. In particular we will discuss the flux of HOx precursors and NOx to the upper troposphere as well as their wet deposition. Results from these types of simulations can then be used to assess the ability of sub-grid parameterizations in global scale models.