The Influence of Wind Speed on Shallow Marine Cumulus Convection

Abstract

The role of wind speed on shallow marine cumulus convection is explored using large-eddy simulations and concepts from bulk theory. Focusing on cases characteristic of the trades, the equilibrium trade wind layer is found to be deeper at stronger winds, with larger surface moisture fluxes and smaller surface heat fluxes. The opposing behavior of the surface fluxes is caused by more warm and dry air being mixed to the surface as the cloud layer deepens. This leads to little difference in equilibrium surface buoyancy fluxes and cloud-base mass fluxes. Shallow cumuli are deeper, but not more numerous or more energetic. The deepening response is necessary to resolve an inconsistency in the subcloud layer. This argument follows from bulk concepts and assumes that the lapse rate and flux divergence of moist-conserved variables do not change, based on simulation results. With that assumption, stronger winds and a fixed inversion height imply larger surface moisture and buoyancy fluxes (heat fluxes are small initially). The consequent moistening tends to decrease cloud-base height, which is inconsistent with a larger surface buoyancy flux that tends to increase cloud-base height, in order to maintain the buoyancy flux at cloud base at a fixed fraction of its surface value (entrainment closure). Deepening the cloud layer by increasing the inversion height resolves this inconsistency by allowing the surface buoyancy flux to remain constant without further moistening the subcloud layer. Because this explanation follows from simple bulk concepts, it is suggested that the internal dynamics (mixing) of clouds is only secondary to the deepening response.