Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT The individual and synergistic impacts of cold pools and land surface heterogeneity on convection initiation are investigated. Idealized large eddy simulations of deep convection over the Amazon rainforest are conducted. Simulations test realistic and homogenized vegetation, along with realistic and suppressed low‐level evaporation which eliminates cold pools. Updrafts are tracked to determine convection initiation locations. The aggregation of initiation locations is quantified with an organization index. Initiation locations are randomly distributed over homogeneous vegetation, with or without cold pools, demonstrating that cold pools have minimal impacts on initiation locations over homogeneous vegetation. With realistic vegetation, convection initiation is more frequent over forested than deforested areas due to favorable thermodynamics. Heterogeneous vegetation effectively aggregates initiation locations and precipitation compared to homogeneous vegetation, whereas cold pools disaggregate initiation locations and precipitation by propagating into deforested regions and initiating convection. Thus, cold pools partially counteract the effects of anthropogenically driven land surface heterogeneity.
Source: Atmospheric Science Letters
DOI: 10.1002/asl2.70011
Institution: Colorado State University
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Life on land
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,670
OpenAlex ID: W7128516480