Cloud Modeling

Numerical cloud models have been developed and applied extensively to study cloud-scale and mesoscale processes during the past four decades. The distinctive aspect of these cloud models is their ability to treat explicitly (or resolve) cloud-scale dynamics. This requires the cloud models to be formulated from the non-hydrostatic equations of motion that explicitly include the vertical acceleration terms since the vertical and horizontal scales of convection are similar. Such models are also necessary in order to allow gravity waves, such as those triggered by clouds, to be resolved explicitly. In contrast, the hydrostatic approximation, usually applied in global or regional models, does allow the presence of gravity waves. In addition, the availability of exponentially increasing computer capabilities has resulted in time integrations increasing from hours to days, domain grids boxes (points) increasing from less than 2000 to more than 2,500,000 grid points with 500 to 1000 m resolution, and 3-D models becoming increasingly prevalent. The cloud resolving model is now at a stage where it can provide reasonably accurate statistical information of the sub-grid, cloud-resolving processes poorly parameterized in climate models and numerical prediction models.