Identification

Title

Representing subgrid convective initiation in the Community Earth System Model

Abstract

A widely recognized issue found in most Earth System Models is that of convective precipitation being triggered too early during the day over land, often resulting in persistent light rainfall. In an effort to address this issue, a model-consistent subgrid convective trigger is demonstrated in the Community Earth System Model (CESM). Subgrid convective initiation is achieved by first calculating a convective threshold within the Community Atmosphere Model (version 5.3). The convective threshold is then passed to each subgrid land cover type within the Community Land Model (version 4.0) and convection is considered to be active if the convective threshold is exceeded and the convective available potential energy (CAPE) exceeds 70 J kg(-1) (the default trigger). In total, three simulations are performed: (1) a Control (CTL) with the default CAPE trigger, (2) a simulation with the default CAPE trigger as well as the subgrid trigger (HCF trigger) applied over land and ocean, and (3) a simulation the same as the HCF trigger but only applied over land (HCF land). By including this subgrid trigger, convective onset time is delayed by 1-4 h; however, the time of peak precipitation is unchanged. This diurnal shift improves the number of hours the deep convective scheme is invoked from more than 75% to less than 50%, alleviating the overactivity problem. The delayed onset time of deep convection allows for greater CAPE accumulation and a greater proportion of precipitation generated outside the convective scheme. More CAPE consequently produces an overall increase in intense precipitation events.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7xd146c

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2017-07-22T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact