@article{9137, abstract = {Pools of air cooled by partial rain evaporation span up to several hundreds of kilometers in nature and typically last less than 1 day, ultimately losing their identity to the large-scale flow. These fundamentally differ in character from the radiatively-driven dry pools defining convective aggregation. Advancement in remote sensing and in computer capabilities has promoted exploration of how precipitation-induced cold pool processes modify the convective spectrum and life cycle. This contribution surveys current understanding of such cold pools over the tropical and subtropical oceans. In shallow convection with low rain rates, the cold pools moisten, preserving the near-surface equivalent potential temperature or increasing it if the surface moisture fluxes cannot ventilate beyond the new surface layer; both conditions indicate downdraft origin air from within the boundary layer. When rain rates exceed ∼ 2 mm h−1, convective-scale downdrafts can bring down drier air of lower equivalent potential temperature from above the boundary layer. The resulting density currents facilitate the lifting of locally thermodynamically favorable air and can impose an arc-shaped mesoscale cloud organization. This organization allows clouds capable of reaching 4–5 km within otherwise dry environments. These are more commonly observed in the northern hemisphere trade wind regime, where the flow to the intertropical convergence zone is unimpeded by the equator. Their near-surface air properties share much with those shown from cold pools sampled in the equatorial Indian Ocean. Cold pools are most effective at influencing the mesoscale organization when the atmosphere is moist in the lower free troposphere and dry above, suggesting an optimal range of water vapor paths. Outstanding questions on the relationship between cold pools, their accompanying moisture distribution and cloud cover are detailed further. Near-surface water vapor rings are documented in one model inside but near the cold pool edge; these are not consistent with observations, but do improve with smaller horizontal grid spacings.}, author = {Zuidema, Paquita and Torri, Giuseppe and Muller, Caroline J and Chandra, Arunchandra}, issn = {0169-3298}, journal = {Surveys in Geophysics}, keywords = {Geochemistry and Petrology, Geophysics}, number = {6}, pages = {1283--1305}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{A survey of precipitation-induced atmospheric cold pools over oceans and their interactions with the larger-scale environment}}, doi = {10.1007/s10712-017-9447-x}, volume = {38}, year = {2017}, } @article{9138, abstract = {Convective self-aggregation, the spontaneous organization of initially scattered convection into isolated convective clusters despite spatially homogeneous boundary conditions and forcing, was first recognized and studied in idealized numerical simulations. While there is a rich history of observational work on convective clustering and organization, there have been only a few studies that have analyzed observations to look specifically for processes related to self-aggregation in models. Here we review observational work in both of these categories and motivate the need for more of this work. We acknowledge that self-aggregation may appear to be far-removed from observed convective organization in terms of time scales, initial conditions, initiation processes, and mean state extremes, but we argue that these differences vary greatly across the diverse range of model simulations in the literature and that these comparisons are already offering important insights into real tropical phenomena. Some preliminary new findings are presented, including results showing that a self-aggregation simulation with square geometry has too broad distribution of humidity and is too dry in the driest regions when compared with radiosonde records from Nauru, while an elongated channel simulation has realistic representations of atmospheric humidity and its variability. We discuss recent work increasing our understanding of how organized convection and climate change may interact, and how model discrepancies related to this question are prompting interest in observational comparisons. We also propose possible future directions for observational work related to convective aggregation, including novel satellite approaches and a ground-based observational network.}, author = {Holloway, Christopher E. and Wing, Allison A. and Bony, Sandrine and Muller, Caroline J and Masunaga, Hirohiko and L’Ecuyer, Tristan S. and Turner, David D. and Zuidema, Paquita}, issn = {0169-3298}, journal = {Surveys in Geophysics}, keywords = {Geochemistry and Petrology, Geophysics}, number = {6}, pages = {1199--1236}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Observing convective aggregation}}, doi = {10.1007/s10712-017-9419-1}, volume = {38}, year = {2017}, } @article{9139, abstract = {Organized convection in the tropics occurs across a range of spatial and temporal scales and strongly influences cloud cover and humidity. One mode of organization found is “self-aggregation,” in which moist convection spontaneously organizes into one or several isolated clusters despite spatially homogeneous boundary conditions and forcing. Self-aggregation is driven by interactions between clouds, moisture, radiation, surface fluxes, and circulation, and occurs in a wide variety of idealized simulations of radiative–convective equilibrium. Here we provide a review of convective self-aggregation in numerical simulations, including its character, causes, and effects. We describe the evolution of self-aggregation including its time and length scales and the physical mechanisms leading to its triggering and maintenance, and we also discuss possible links to climate and climate change.}, author = {Wing, Allison A. and Emanuel, Kerry and Holloway, Christopher E. and Muller, Caroline J}, issn = {0169-3298}, journal = {Surveys in Geophysics}, keywords = {Geochemistry and Petrology, Geophysics}, number = {6}, pages = {1173--1197}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Convective self-aggregation in numerical simulations: A review}}, doi = {10.1007/s10712-017-9408-4}, volume = {38}, year = {2017}, } @article{12648, abstract = {Distributed glacier melt models generally assume that the glacier surface consists of bare exposed ice and snow. In reality, many glaciers are wholly or partially covered in layers of debris that tend to suppress ablation rates. In this paper, an existing physically based point model for the ablation of debris-covered ice is incorporated in a distributed melt model and applied to Haut Glacier d'Arolla, Switzerland, which has three large patches of debris cover on its surface. The model is based on a 10 m resolution digital elevation model (DEM) of the area; each glacier pixel in the DEM is defined as either bare or debris-covered ice, and may be covered in snow that must be melted off before ice ablation is assumed to occur. Each debris-covered pixel is assigned a debris thickness value using probability distributions based on over 1000 manual thickness measurements. Locally observed meteorological data are used to run energy balance calculations in every pixel, using an approach suitable for snow, bare ice or debris-covered ice as appropriate. The use of the debris model significantly reduces the total ablation in the debris-covered areas, however the precise reduction is sensitive to the temperature extrapolation used in the model distribution because air near the debris surface tends to be slightly warmer than over bare ice. Overall results suggest that the debris patches, which cover 10% of the glacierized area, reduce total runoff from the glacierized part of the basin by up to 7%.}, author = {Reid, T. D. and Carenzo, M. and Pellicciotti, Francesca and Brock, B. W.}, issn = {0148-0227}, journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres}, keywords = {Paleontology, Space and Planetary Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous), Atmospheric Science, Earth-Surface Processes, Geochemistry and Petrology, Soil Science, Water Science and Technology, Ecology, Aquatic Science, Forestry, Oceanography, Geophysics}, number = {D18}, publisher = {American Geophysical Union}, title = {{Including debris cover effects in a distributed model of glacier ablation}}, doi = {10.1029/2012jd017795}, volume = {117}, year = {2012}, } @article{12651, abstract = {Temperature data from three Automatic Weather Stations and twelve Temperature Loggers are used to investigate the spatiotemporal variability of temperature over a glacier, its main atmospheric controls, the suitability of extrapolation techniques and their effect on melt modeling. We use data collected on Juncal Norte Glacier, central Chile, during one ablation season. We examine temporal and spatial variability in lapse rates (LRs), together with alternative statistical interpolation methods. The main control over the glacier thermal regime is the development of a katabatic boundary layer (KBL). Katabatic wind occurs at night and in the morning and is eroded in the afternoon. LRs reveal strong diurnal variability, with steeper LRs during the day when the katabatic wind weakens and shallower LRs during the night and morning. We suggest that temporally variable LRs should be used to account for the observed change. They tend to be steeper than equivalent constant LRs, and therefore result in a reduction in simulated melt compared to use of constant LRs when extrapolating from lower to higher elevations. In addition to the temporal variability, the temperature-elevation relationship varies also in space. Differences are evident between local LRs and including such variability in melt modeling affects melt simulations. Extrapolation methods based on the spatial variability of the observations after removal of the elevation trend, such as Inverse Distance Weighting or Kriging, do not seem necessary for simulations of gridded temperature data over a glacier.}, author = {Petersen, L. and Pellicciotti, Francesca}, issn = {0148-0227}, journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres}, keywords = {Paleontology, Space and Planetary Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous), Atmospheric Science, Earth-Surface Processes, Geochemistry and Petrology, Soil Science, Water Science and Technology, Ecology, Aquatic Science, Forestry, Oceanography, Geophysics}, number = {D23}, publisher = {American Geophysical Union}, title = {{Spatial and temporal variability of air temperature on a melting glacier: Atmospheric controls, extrapolation methods and their effect on melt modeling, Juncal Norte Glacier, Chile}}, doi = {10.1029/2011jd015842}, volume = {116}, year = {2011}, } @article{12658, abstract = {[1] During the ablation period 2001 a glaciometeorological experiment was carried out on Haut Glacier d'Arolla, Switzerland. Five meteorological stations were installed on the glacier, and one permanent automatic weather station in the glacier foreland. The altitudes of the stations ranged between 2500 and 3000 m a.s.l., and they were in operation from end of May to beginning of September 2001. The spatial arrangement of the stations and temporal duration of the measurements generated a unique data set enabling the analysis of the spatial and temporal variability of the meteorological variables across an alpine glacier. All measurements were taken at a nominal height of 2 m, and hourly averages were derived for the analysis. The wind regime was dominated by the glacier wind (mean value 2.8 m s−1) but due to erosion by the synoptic gradient wind, occasionally the wind would blow up the valley. A slight decrease in mean 2 m air temperatures with altitude was found, however the 2 m air temperature gradient varied greatly and frequently changed its sign. Mean relative humidity was 71% and exhibited limited spatial variation. Mean incoming shortwave radiation and albedo both generally increased with elevation. The different components of shortwave radiation are quantified with a parameterization scheme. Resulting spatial variations are mainly due to horizon obstruction and reflections from surrounding slopes, i.e., topography. The effect of clouds accounts for a loss of 30% of the extraterrestrial flux. Albedos derived from a Landsat TM image of 30 July show remarkably constant values, in the range 0.49 to 0.50, across snow covered parts of the glacier, while albedo is highly spatially variable below the zone of continuous snow cover. These results are verified with ground measurements and compared with parameterized albedo. Mean longwave radiative fluxes decreased with elevation due to lower air temperatures and the effect of upper hemisphere slopes. It is shown through parameterization that this effect would even be more pronounced without the effect of clouds. Results are discussed with respect to a similar study which has been carried out on Pasterze Glacier (Austria). The presented algorithms for interpolating, parameterizing and simulating variables and parameters in alpine regions are integrated in the software package AMUNDSEN which is freely available to be adapted and further developed by the community.}, author = {Strasser, Ulrich and Corripio, Javier and Pellicciotti, Francesca and Burlando, Paolo and Brock, Ben and Funk, Martin}, issn = {0148-0227}, journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres}, keywords = {Paleontology, Space and Planetary Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous), Atmospheric Science, Earth-Surface Processes, Geochemistry and Petrology, Soil Science, Water Science and Technology, Ecology, Aquatic Science, Forestry, Oceanography, Geophysics}, number = {D3}, publisher = {American Geophysical Union}, title = {{Spatial and temporal variability of meteorological variables at Haut Glacier d'Arolla (Switzerland) during the ablation season 2001: Measurements and simulations}}, doi = {10.1029/2003jd003973}, volume = {109}, year = {2004}, }