Buoyancy statistics in moist turbulent rayleigh-bénard convection

Jörg Schumacher; Olivier Pauluis

doi:10.1017/S0022112010000030

Buoyancy statistics in moist turbulent rayleigh-bénard convection

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Abstract

We study shallow moist Rayleigh-Bénard convection in the Boussinesq approximation in three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The thermodynamics of phase changes is approximated by a piecewise linear equation of state close to the phase boundary. The impact of phase changes on the turbulent fluctuations and the transfer of buoyancy through the layer is discussed as a function of the Rayleigh number and the ability to form liquid water. The enhanced buoyancy flux due to phase changes is compared with dry convection reference cases and related to the cloud cover in the convection layer. This study indicates that the moist Rayleigh-Bénard problem offers a practical framework for the development and evaluation of parameterizations for atmospheric convection.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	509-519
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Volume	648
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112010000030
State	Published - Apr 10 2010

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Condensed Matter Physics
Mechanics of Materials
Mechanical Engineering

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10.1017/S0022112010000030

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title = "Buoyancy statistics in moist turbulent rayleigh-b{\'e}nard convection",

abstract = "We study shallow moist Rayleigh-B{\'e}nard convection in the Boussinesq approximation in three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The thermodynamics of phase changes is approximated by a piecewise linear equation of state close to the phase boundary. The impact of phase changes on the turbulent fluctuations and the transfer of buoyancy through the layer is discussed as a function of the Rayleigh number and the ability to form liquid water. The enhanced buoyancy flux due to phase changes is compared with dry convection reference cases and related to the cloud cover in the convection layer. This study indicates that the moist Rayleigh-B{\'e}nard problem offers a practical framework for the development and evaluation of parameterizations for atmospheric convection.",

author = "J{\"o}rg Schumacher and Olivier Pauluis",

note = "Funding Information: We thank the DEISA Consortium (www.deisa.eu), co-funded through the EU FP6 project RI-031513 and the FP7 project RI-222919, for support within the DEISA Extreme Computing Initiative. J.S. is supported by DFG grants SCHU 1410/9-1 and SCHU 1410/5-1 and O.P. by NSF grant ATM-0545047.",

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doi = "10.1017/S0022112010000030",

language = "English (US)",

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T1 - Buoyancy statistics in moist turbulent rayleigh-bénard convection

AU - Schumacher, Jörg

AU - Pauluis, Olivier

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the DEISA Consortium (www.deisa.eu), co-funded through the EU FP6 project RI-031513 and the FP7 project RI-222919, for support within the DEISA Extreme Computing Initiative. J.S. is supported by DFG grants SCHU 1410/9-1 and SCHU 1410/5-1 and O.P. by NSF grant ATM-0545047.

PY - 2010/4/10

Y1 - 2010/4/10

N2 - We study shallow moist Rayleigh-Bénard convection in the Boussinesq approximation in three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The thermodynamics of phase changes is approximated by a piecewise linear equation of state close to the phase boundary. The impact of phase changes on the turbulent fluctuations and the transfer of buoyancy through the layer is discussed as a function of the Rayleigh number and the ability to form liquid water. The enhanced buoyancy flux due to phase changes is compared with dry convection reference cases and related to the cloud cover in the convection layer. This study indicates that the moist Rayleigh-Bénard problem offers a practical framework for the development and evaluation of parameterizations for atmospheric convection.

AB - We study shallow moist Rayleigh-Bénard convection in the Boussinesq approximation in three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The thermodynamics of phase changes is approximated by a piecewise linear equation of state close to the phase boundary. The impact of phase changes on the turbulent fluctuations and the transfer of buoyancy through the layer is discussed as a function of the Rayleigh number and the ability to form liquid water. The enhanced buoyancy flux due to phase changes is compared with dry convection reference cases and related to the cloud cover in the convection layer. This study indicates that the moist Rayleigh-Bénard problem offers a practical framework for the development and evaluation of parameterizations for atmospheric convection.

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JO - Journal of Fluid Mechanics

JF - Journal of Fluid Mechanics

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Buoyancy statistics in moist turbulent rayleigh-bénard convection

Abstract

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