moistconvection

Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program - Southern Great Plains site (ARM SGP)

still WIP, github issue: https://github.com/leifdenby/moistconvection/issues/4

Brown et al 2002: … based on an idealization of observations made at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program on 21 June 1997. The site consists of in situ and remote-sensing instrumented clusters arrayed across approximately 140 000 km2 in Oklahoma and Kansas. On the day in question, cumulus clouds developed at the top of an initially clear convective boundary layer.

Field experiment documented in Stokes and Schwartz (1994), Ackerman and Stokes (2003)

LES described in Brown et al. (2002)

External links:

• GCSS-DIME link for ARM-1997-SGP IOP Field Campaign: https://gcss-dime.giss.nasa.gov/armiop3/

Characteristics

• strong diurnal cycle first forced (not reaching LFC) and later free shallow convection, maximum surface fluxes “far in excess” of BOMEX and ATEX cases (which were over ocean).

• surface fluxes dominate, large-scale forcings are weak in comparison

• significant change in Bowen ratio ($\approx 0.3$) from BOMEX ($\approx 0.06$), more transport through sensible heat compared to latent heat.