HR: 1330h
AN: A42B-0756    [PDF]
TI: Eddy-Diffusivity and Convective Boundary Layers
AU: * Teixeira, J
EM: teixeira.ucar.pt@nrlmry.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, 7 Grace Hopper Ave., Monterey, CA 93943 United States
AB: Convective boundary layers are a fundamental component of atmospheric physics and dynamics. A realistic representation of the different convective boundary layers in climate and weather prediction models has been an elusive goal in atmospheric modeling research for many years. There is now the need for unified parameterizations to represent convective mixing in atmospheric models. A new eddy-diffusivity formulation based on the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) closure is suggested as a possible alternative for such a unified parameterization. The new aspects of this scheme are: (i) a decomposition between TKE outside and within clouds and (ii) a new formulation for the mixing length that relates the mixing length to the square root of the TKE and a time scale. The new closure is shown to reproduce realistic thermodynamical structures for dry convective, stratocumulus and shallow cumulus boundary layers.
DE: 3307 Boundary layer processes
DE: 3314 Convective processes
DE: 3337 Numerical modeling and data assimilation
DE: 3379 Turbulence
DE: 3399 General or miscellaneous
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting