Identification

Title

Non-monotonic convective response to vertical wind shear: A closer look from cloud resolving model simulations

Abstract

Using a three‐dimensional cloud‐resolving model, a systematic exploration is undertaken of the response of a radiative‐convective equilibrium state to imposed vertical wind shear of varying magnitude. Domain‐averaged surface precipitation exhibits a non‐monotonic sensitivity to increasing shear magnitude, characterized by a decrease with increasing shear for weakly sheared conditions (<1.5 × 10 −3  s −1 ) and an increase under stronger shear (>1.5 × 10 −3  s −1 ), with a similar trend in surface heat fluxes. During the first 30–40 min after wind shear is imposed, convective activity and rainfall are suppressed, which is attributed to increased surface drag and reduced boundary layer eddy kinetic energy. As the shear persists over time, it eventually fosters the development of deep convection. An analysis of the condensed water budget shows that the overall response of the domain‐mean surface precipitation rate to increasing shear magnitude is mainly explained by changes in condensation rate, which in turn is primarily controlled by the cloudy updraft mass flux. In the lower to middle troposphere where most condensation occurs, cloudy updraft fraction steadily increases with increasing shear magnitude, whereas mean updraft vertical velocity exhibits a general decreasing trend as the shear magnitude increases. The compensating responses of updraft fraction and mean vertical velocity explain the non‐monotonic surface precipitation response to vertical wind shear. Vertical shear does not significantly impact the evaporation or precipitation efficiencies.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d75m6b5j

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

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keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

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East bounding longitude

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Temporal reference

Temporal extent

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date type

publication

effective date

2025-05-01T00:00:00Z

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<span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;font-style:normal;" data-sheets-root="1">Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</span>

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact