Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Large‐scale integral constraints on cloud behaviors can guide their more precise representation in present and future climates. We show theoretically that the mean moist static energy at cloud edge is nearly equivalent to the mean saturated static energy of the entire atmospheric domain, whether for a given level or for the cloudy troposphere as a whole. A numerical model simulation of a deep‐convective cloud field shows this equivalence holds over a 10 K range in sea surface temperature. The constraint offers a simple method for estimating the mean level of convective neutral buoyancy, one that rises linearly with the energy of sea surface air. The simulations suggest an interesting second constraint, that the maximum deviation of the saturated static energy profile from its tropospheric mean value is equivalent to the tropospheric mean energy of the saturation deficit.
Source: Geophysical Research Letters
DOI: 10.1029/2024gl113170
Authors: T. J. Garrett, C. Bois, T. D. DeWitt, K. N. Rees
Institution: University of Utah
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,190
OpenAlex ID: W4411455691