{"title":"Moist convection and radiative cooling: Dynamical response and scaling","scopus_import":"1","isi":1,"_id":"20590","article_processing_charge":"Yes (via OA deal)","has_accepted_license":"1","date_created":"2025-11-02T23:01:34Z","oa_version":"Published Version","month":"10","abstract":[{"text":"Moist convection is a fundamental process occurring in the Earth's atmosphere. It plays a central role in the weather and climate of the Tropics, where, to first order, the heating of the atmosphere by convection is in balance with the cooling of the atmosphere by the emission of radiation to outer space. In this study, we use a cloud-resolving model in radiative–convective equilibrium with an imposed constant rate of radiative cooling and study the response of moist convection to varying this rate of radiative cooling. In particular, we study two types of simulation: varying air temperature (VAT) simulations, where the air temperature is allowed to adjust to the imposed radiative cooling, and constant air temperature (CAT) simulations, where the surface temperature is tuned to ensure that the atmospheric temperature profile in the domain is constant. We recover the previously known result that, in response to increasing radiative cooling, the area of convection expands rapidly, while the intensity of convection does not change. We find that this response is explained by the increased boundary-layer variability in simulations with greater radiative cooling, which compensates for the decreasing temperature by adding a larger initial velocity close to the cloud base. We also propose a fundamental scaling of the non-dimensional cumulus mass flux in moist convection, which is robust across models of different complexity. We aim to bridge the gap between highly idealised prototypes of moist convection, such as the “Rainy–Bénard convection” introduced by Vallis et al., and comprehensive cloud-resolving models.","lang":"eng"}],"acknowledgement":"The authors gratefully acknowledge discussions with Professor Robert Plant (University of Reading, UK), Professor Steve Sherwood (University of New South Wales, Australia), Professor Steve Tobias, Professor Douglas Parker, and Gregory Dritschel (University of Leeds, UK). Discussions with colleagues at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria played a large role in shaping this study. The authors are particularly grateful for inputs and discussions from Dr. Jiawei Bao, Dr. Alejandro Casallas, and Alzbeta Pechacova.\r\nThis project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska–Curie grant agreement No. 101034413. C. Muller gratefully acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Project CLUSTER, Grant Agreement No. 805041). This research was supported by the Scientific Service Units (SSU) of IST Austria through resources provided by Scientific Computing (SciComp). Open Access funding provided by Institute of Science and Technology Austria/KEMÖ.","publisher":"Wiley","date_published":"2025-10-18T00:00:00Z","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"project":[{"_id":"fc2ed2f7-9c52-11eb-aca3-c01059dda49c","grant_number":"101034413","name":"IST-BRIDGE: International postdoctoral program","call_identifier":"H2020"},{"_id":"629205d8-2b32-11ec-9570-e1356ff73576","name":"Organization of CLoUdS, and implications of Tropical  cyclones and for the Energetics of the tropics, in current and waRming climate","grant_number":"805041","call_identifier":"H2020"}],"type":"journal_article","publication":"Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society","ddc":["550"],"PlanS_conform":"1","corr_author":"1","date_updated":"2025-12-01T15:15:18Z","main_file_link":[{"open_access":"1","url":"https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70044"}],"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["1477-870X"],"issn":["0035-9009"]},"ec_funded":1,"tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode"},"year":"2025","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","OA_type":"hybrid","department":[{"_id":"CaMu"}],"quality_controlled":"1","doi":"10.1002/qj.70044","author":[{"first_name":"Lokahith N","full_name":"Agasthya, Lokahith N","last_name":"Agasthya","id":"cd100965-0804-11ed-9c55-f4878ff4e877"},{"full_name":"Muller, Caroline J","first_name":"Caroline J","orcid":"0000-0001-5836-5350","last_name":"Muller","id":"f978ccb0-3f7f-11eb-b193-b0e2bd13182b"}],"status":"public","publication_status":"epub_ahead","citation":{"short":"L.N. Agasthya, C.J. Muller, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (2025).","ama":"Agasthya LN, Muller CJ. Moist convection and radiative cooling: Dynamical response and scaling. <i>Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society</i>. 2025. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70044\">10.1002/qj.70044</a>","chicago":"Agasthya, Lokahith N, and Caroline J Muller. “Moist Convection and Radiative Cooling: Dynamical Response and Scaling.” <i>Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society</i>. Wiley, 2025. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70044\">https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70044</a>.","ieee":"L. N. Agasthya and C. J. Muller, “Moist convection and radiative cooling: Dynamical response and scaling,” <i>Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society</i>. Wiley, 2025.","mla":"Agasthya, Lokahith N., and Caroline J. Muller. “Moist Convection and Radiative Cooling: Dynamical Response and Scaling.” <i>Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society</i>, e70044, Wiley, 2025, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70044\">10.1002/qj.70044</a>.","ista":"Agasthya LN, Muller CJ. 2025. Moist convection and radiative cooling: Dynamical response and scaling. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society., e70044.","apa":"Agasthya, L. N., &#38; Muller, C. J. (2025). Moist convection and radiative cooling: Dynamical response and scaling. <i>Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society</i>. Wiley. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70044\">https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70044</a>"},"acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"ScienComp"}],"OA_place":"publisher","external_id":{"isi":["001595821400001"]},"article_number":"e70044","article_type":"original","oa":1,"day":"18"}