Deep moist atmospheric convection in a subkilometer global simulation

• Published in: Geophysical research letters Vol. 40; no. 18; pp. 4922 - 4926
• Main Authors: Miyamoto, Yoshiaki, Kajikawa, Yoshiyuki, Yoshida, Ryuji, Yamaura, Tsuyoshi, Yashiro, Hisashi, Tomita, Hirofumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Blackwell Publishing Ltd 28.09.2013; American Geophysical Union; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Atmospheric convection; Atmospheric models; Cells; Climate; Climate system; Climatology; Computer simulation; Convection; Convection modes; Convective cells; deep convection; Distance; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Energy; Exact sciences and technology; global atmospheric model; Mass; Momentum; Resolution; Simulation; Statistical methods; Statistics; Testing; Thermal energy; Transportation models; Transporting; Weather; drill cores; Convection cell; Atmospheric convection; Atmosphere model; simulation; testing; refinement; global; climate; Thermal energy; statistics
• ISSN: 0094-8276; 1944-8007
• DOI: 10.1002/grl.50944

Deep moist atmospheric convection is a key element of the weather and climate system for transporting mass, momentum, and thermal energy. It has been challenging to simulate convection realistically in global atmospheric models because of the large gap in spatial scales between convection (100 km) and global motions (104 km). We conducted the first ever subkilometer global simulation and described the features of convection. Through a series of grid‐refinement resolution testing, we found that an essential change for convection statistics occurred around 2 km grid spacing. The convection structure, number of convective cells, and distance to the nearest convective cell dramatically changed at this resolution. The convection core was resolved using multiple grids in simulations with grid spacings less than 2.0 km. Key Points Subkilometer global simulation is first successfully conductedThe global features of deep moist convection are presentedThe necessary resolution for simulating convection in global models is 2 km