A one-dimensional entraining/detraining plume model and its application in convective parameterization

Abstract

The two-way exchange of mass between clouds and their environment is modulated at each vertical level by a buoyancy sorting mechanism at the interface of clear and cloudy air. The new entrainment/detrainment scheme allows vertical profiles of both updraft moisture detrainment and updraft vertical mass flux to vary in a physically realistic way as a function of the cloud-scale environment. These performance characteristics allow the parameterized vertical distribution of convective heating and drying to be much more responsive to environmental conditions than is possible with a traditional one-dimensional entraining plume model. -from Authors