Perturbation growth at the convective scale for CSIP IOP18

Abstract

The Met Office Unified Model is run for a case observed during Intensive Observation Period 18 (IOP18) of the Convective Storms Initiation Project (CSIP). The aims are to identify the physical processes that lead to perturbation growth at the convective scale in response to model-state perturbations and to determine their sensitivity to the character of the perturbations. The case is strongly upper-level forced but with detailed mesoscale/convective-scale evolution that is dependent on smallerscale processes. Potential temperature is perturbed within the boundary layer. The effects on perturbation growth of both the amplitude and typical scale length of the perturbations are investigated, and perturbations are applied either sequentially (every 30 minutes throughout the simulation) or at specific times. The direct effects (within one time step) of the perturbations are to generate propagating Lamb and acoustic waves and produce generally small changes in cloud parameters and convective instability. In exceptional cases a perturbation at a specific grid point leads to switching of the diagnosed boundary-layer type or discontinuous changes in convective instability, through the generation or removal of a lid. The indirect effects (during the entire simulation) are changes in the intensity and location of precipitation and in the cloud-size distribution. Qualitatively different behaviour is found for strong (1 K amplitude) and weak (0.01K amplitude) perturbations, with faster growth after sunrise found only for the weaker perturbations. However, the overall perturbation growth (as measured by the root-mean-square error of accumulated precipitation) reaches similar values at saturation, regardless of the perturbation characterization. © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society and Crown.