D. Gregory1 and F. Guichard1,2
1European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts,
Reading, United Kingdom
2Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques/GAME
(CNRS & Météo-France), Toulouse, France
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 2001, vol 128, 625-646.
Summary: Cloud resolving model simulations of organised tropical
convection in TOGA-COARE are used to evaluate versions of the ECMWF
convection and cloud schemes in single column model simulations.
Emphasis is placed upon the ability of the convection scheme to represent
"cloud scale" processes, with a typically mode 1 heating structure through
the troposphere, with the cloud scheme representing the stratiform
(mesoscale) component with upper level heating and low level cooling
due to the evaporation of precipitation. While diagnosis of convective
and stratiform precipitation is sensitive to the sampling criteria applied
to the CRM, vertical structures of the mass and heat budgets are robust.
Using diagnostics from the cloud resolving model simulations
as a guide, revisions to the convection and cloud schemes are suggested
in order to enable the parametrization to represent the two scales. The
study suggests that a mass flux convection scheme linked via detrainment
to a prognostic treatment of cloud can represent organised convection
provided the upward motion in the upper level stratiform cloud is
considered.