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Sensitivity studies of developing convection in a cloud‐resolving model
Author(s) -
Petch J. C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1256/qj.05.71
Subject(s) - benchmark (surveying) , sensitivity (control systems) , focus (optics) , convection , computer science , cloud computing , grid , meteorology , set (abstract data type) , domain (mathematical analysis) , deep convection , range (aeronautics) , process (computing) , environmental science , geology , aerospace engineering , mathematics , geography , physics , optics , engineering , geometry , electronic engineering , geodesy , programming language , operating system , mathematical analysis
Cloud‐resolving models (CRMs) remain an important tool for providing detailed process information about convection. In this short paper I focus on the development of deep convection and consider what can be considered a minimum expense benchmark simulation for comparison with a numerical weather‐prediction model. To decide this a range of sensitivity studies are presented to aspects of the experimental set‐up which strongly impact the computational expense. Many of the sensitivities shown in these CRM experiments are quite different to those seen in previous papers which have tended to focus more on deep active convection. Here it is shown that for the case‐study presented a minimum expense benchmark simulation must be a 3D simulation. A 200 m horizontal grid length and a domain of 25 km are also required to capture the most important processes. Copyright © 2006 Crown copyright