lmd_Rio2010_abstracts.html
2010 .
(3 publications)C. Rio, F. Hourdin, F. Couvreux, and A. Jam. Resolved Versus Parametrized Boundary-Layer Plumes. Part II: Continuous Formulations of Mixing Rates for Mass-Flux Schemes. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 135:469-483, June 2010. [ bib | DOI | ADS link ]
The conditional sampling of coherent structures in large-eddy simulations of the convective boundary layer (Couvreux et al. Boundary-layer Meteorol 134:441-458, 2010) is used to propose and evaluate formulations of fractional entrainment and detrainment rates for mass-flux schemes. The proposed formulations are physically-based and continuous from the surface to the top of clouds. Entrainment is related to the updraft vertical velocity divergence, while detrainment depends on the thermal vertical velocity, on buoyancy and on the moisture contrast between the mean plume and its environment. The proposed formulations are first directly evaluated in simulations of shallow clouds. They are then tested in single-column simulations with the thermal plume model, a mass-flux representation of boundary-layer thermals.
C. Rio, F. Hourdin, and A. Chédin. Numerical simulation of tropospheric injection of biomass burning products by pyro-thermal plumes. Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics, 10:3463-3478, April 2010. [ bib | ADS link ]
The thermal plume model, a mass-flux scheme originally developed to represent the vertical transport by convective structures within the boundary layer, is adapted to the representation of plumes generated by fires, with the aim of estimating the height at which fire emissions are actually injected in the atmosphere. The parameterization, which takes into account the excess of near surface temperature induced by fires and the mixing between convective plumes and environmental air, is first evaluated on two well-documented fires. Simulations over Southern Africa performed with the general circulation model LMDZ over one month show that the CO2 can be injected far above the boundary layer height, leading to a daily excess of CO2 in the mid-troposphere of an order of 2 ppmv. These results agree with satellite retrievals of a diurnal cycle of CO2 in the free troposphere over regions affected by biomass burning in the Tropics.
F. Couvreux, F. Hourdin, and C. Rio. Resolved Versus Parametrized Boundary-Layer Plumes. Part I: A Parametrization-Oriented Conditional Sampling in Large-Eddy Simulations. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 134:441-458, March 2010. [ bib | DOI | ADS link ]
A conditional sampling based on the combination of a passive tracer emitted at the surface and thermodynamic variables is proposed to characterise organized structures in large-eddy simulations of cloud-free and cloudy boundary layers. The sampling is evaluated against more traditional sampling of dry thermals or clouds. It enables the characterization of convective updrafts from the surface to the top of the boundary layer (or the top of cumulus clouds), describing in particular the transition from the sub-cloud to the cloud layer, and retrieves plume characteristics, entrainment and detrainment rates, variances and fluxes. This sampling is used to analyze the contribution of boundary-layer thermals to vertical fluxes and variances.