Explicit simulation and parameterization of mesoscale convective systems. Final report, November 1, 1993--April 30, 1997

This research has focused on the development of a parameterization scheme for mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), to be used in numerical weather prediction models with grid spacing too coarse to explicitly simulate such systems. This is an extension to cumulus parameterization schemes, which have long been used to account for the unresolved effects of convection in numerical models. Although MCSs generally require an extended sequence of numerous deep convective cells in order to develop into their characteristic sizes and to persist for their typical durations, their effects on the large scale environment are significantly different than that due to the collective effects of numerous ordinary deep convective cells. These differences are largely due to a large stratiform cloud that develops fairly early in the MCS life-cycle, where mesoscale circulations and dynamics interact with the environment in ways that call for a distinct MCS parameterization. Comparing an MCS and a collection of deep convection that ingests the same amount of boundary layer air and moisture over an extended several hour period, the MCS will generally generates more stratiform rainfall, produce longer-lasting and optically thicker cirrus, and result in different vertical distributions of large-scale tendencies due to latent heating and moistening, momentum transfers, and radiational heating