Tropical Deep Convective Morphology in the Different Thermodynamic and Aerosol Environments of CAMP2Ex and PISTON
Abstract
Deep tropical convective storms have important and complex feedbacks to both the tropical and worldwide climate systems. However, with potential changes to the thermodynamic and aerosol environments in changing climates, the morphology of deep convective storms in the tropics may transform. This study seeks to elucidate the links between tropical maritime storm morphology and changing aerosol and thermodynamic environments. To answer these science questions, we employ the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) to provide full three-dimensional process rates and properties to compliment the observations made during the NASA Cloud, Aerosol, and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex) and the NRL Propagation of Intra-Seasonal Tropical OscillatioNs (PISTON) field campaigns. The campaigns, held in fall 2018 (PISTON) and 2019 (PISTON and CAMP2Ex), target observations of deep and shallow clouds in the Philippine basin with a suite of cloud physics, chemistry, and thermodynamic instruments. The RAMS model includes a robust representation of aerosol, including aerosol generation at the surface and aerosol advection, nucleation and tracking, and thus offers unique opportunities to compare the observations of cloud physics and aerosol made by these field campaigns with the model.
Simulations of the oceanic basin surrounding the Philippine islands have been performed at cloud resolving resolution for three months in 2018 and 2019 using reanalysis aerosol and meteorological boundary conditions. These simulations captured a variety of deep and shallow convective storms developing and maturing in different aerosol and thermodynamic environments. Feature tracking algorithms were used to track the development and movement of the simulated deep convective clouds in these different environments. These cloud tracks allow us to determine the environments experienced by deep convective storms over their lifetime. This cloud tracking dataset was then clustered into different convective morphologies and stratified by thermodynamic and aerosol environments, elucidating the relationship between environmental conditions and convective morphology. The results from this modeling study will be compared with highly preliminary observational results from the CAMP2Ex and PISTON field campaigns.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.A34A..05F
- Keywords:
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- 3314 Convective processes;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES