Event
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Departmental Seminar Series
presents
Characterization of the processes that lead to the destabilization and onset of deep tropical convection
a talk by
Ángel F. Adames-Corraliza
Assistant Professor,
Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan
Tropical convection is highly sensitive by fluctuations in temperature and moisture in the lower-free troposphere as well as processes that occur in the planetary boundary layer (BL, 850-1000 hPa). It is shown that a semi-empirical framework precipitation-buoyancy relation can capture many of the processes that lead to convective onset and evolution in association with tropical motion systems. Through simplified equations it is shown that steady-state convection evolves towards a state of moisture quasi-equilibrium: moist convective instability is consumed while the free troposphere is moistened by convection in such a way that the mean free-tropospheric buoyancy is unchanged.