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The role of shallow convection in the water and energy cycles of the atmosphere

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Abstract

The Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM4) is used to study the role of shallow convection in the hydrologic and energy cycles of the atmosphere. Sensitivity tests with AGCM4 show a marked effect of the parameterization of shallow convection in the model. In particular, including the parameterization of shallow convection produces considerably enhanced vertical mixing and decreased stratiform cloud amounts in the lower subtropical atmosphere over the oceans. The differences in simulated stratiform cloud amounts are associated with a change in the globally averaged outgoing shortwave radiative flux at the top of the atmosphere of about 11 W m−2. Additionally, precipitation rates are considerably reduced for stratiform clouds and enhanced for convective clouds in the subtropics, if the parameterization of shallow convection is included in the model. Additional tests show that the simulated responses in cloud amounts and precipitation to the treatment of shallow convection are robust. Additional simulations with modified closures for deep convection and other changes to the treatment of convection in the model still lead to similar responses of the model results.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments which helped us to improve the manuscript. We are also grateful to our colleagues George Boer, Jiangnan Li, William Merryfield, John Scinocca, Richard Harvey, and Bernard Miville for discussions of the results and contributions to model development and model diagnostics. This study has been funded by the Meteorological Service of Canada with additional support from the NSERC-CFCAS project Modelling of Clouds for Climate (MOC2).

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  1. Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Meteorological Service of Canada, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 1700, STN CSC, Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8W 2Y2, Canada

    Knut von Salzen, Norman A. McFarlane & Michael Lazare

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  1. Knut von Salzen
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  2. Norman A. McFarlane
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Correspondence to Knut von Salzen.

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von Salzen, K., McFarlane, N.A. & Lazare, M. The role of shallow convection in the water and energy cycles of the atmosphere. Clim Dyn 25, 671–688 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-005-0051-2

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