Analysis of the shallow-to-deep convection transition in GoAmazon observations
Authors
Yang Tian — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Yunyan Zhang — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Stephen Klein — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Category
ARM field campaigns – Results from recent ARM field campaigns
Description
This research aims at understanding the physical processes associated with the transition from shallow cumulus clouds to deep convection in the Amazon region. Through using a combination of observational datasets from the ARM GoAmazon field campaign, we will investigate the diurnal timing of shallow to deep convection transition, the most important environmental factors that determine the diurnal peak time of precipitation, the time to grow into mature stage, and the time span of heavy precipitation and the maintenance time for cold pools. It was found that there is a time lag between the peak precipitation and peak cloud top height, which can be related to the shallow cumulus aggregation. We will also compare the transition mechanisms over various climate regimes, e.g. Southern Great Plain versus Amazon, where the surface fluxes and large-scale environment differ substantially.
