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Cloud interactions and merging - Numerical simulationsA total of 48 numerical experiments have been performed to study cloud interactions adn merging by means of a two-dimensional multi-cell model. Two soundings of deep convection during GATE and two different magnitudes of large-scale lifting have been used as the initial conditions and as the main forcing on the model. Over two hundred groups of cloud systems with a life history of over sixty minutes have been generated under the influence of different combinations of the stratification and large-scale lifting. The results demonstrate the increase in convective activity and in amount of precipitation with increased intensity of large-scale lifting. The results also show increased occurrence of cloud merger with increased intensity of large-scale lifting. The most unfavorable environmental conditions for cloud merging are (1) less unstable stratification of the atmosphere and (2) weaker large-scale lifting. A total of fourteen cloud systems qualify as mergers. Two selected cases will be described dynamically and thermodynamically in this paper. Although these cloud mergers have been simulated under the influence of different synoptic-scale conditions, the major physical mechanism related to the cloud merging process is the same as that proposed by Simpson. Cumulus downdrafts and associated cold outflows play a dominant role in the merging process in all cases studied.
Document ID
19850039006
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Tao, W.-K.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Simpson, J.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for Atmospheric Sciences, Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 12, 2013
Publication Date
October 1, 1984
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
Volume: 41
ISSN: 0022-4928
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Accession Number
85A21157
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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