Chapter 13 - Well-mixed layer top entrainment

Abstract

In the last chapter, we have introduced the basic concept of the convective well-mixed layer. It has been shown that a fairly simple description is possible under the hypothesis of vertically homogeneous mixing of a conserved variable, more or less in a self-contained manner. However, the main remaining uncertainty in the formulation is to define the heat flux at the top, which can be defined in terms of the entrainment velocity, we, as introduced by Eq. (12.18b). This chapter focuses on the question of the description of the entrainment flux and velocity.