Theoretical and Operational Implications of Atmospheric Convective Organization

Abstract

In final form 27 September 2011 ©2012 American Meteorological Society t he present workshop constitutes the fourth in the series on “Concepts for Convective Parameterizations in Large-Scale Models.” The purpose of the workshop series has been to discuss the fundamental theoretical issues of convection parameterization with a small number of European scientists. Each workshop chose a specific topic in order to organize it in a focused manner. The first was organized with a focus on statistical cumulus dynamics (Yano et al. 2008), the second with a focus on entrainment and detrainment (Yano and Bechtold 2009), and the third with a focus on the high-resolution limit (Yano et al. 2010). The workshop series has been funded by European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) Action ES0905 (http:// convection.zmaw.de) since 2010. The focus of this last workshop in the series was to discuss the issues of atmospheric convective organization and implications for parameterization from both theoretical and operational perspectives. The topic was chosen at the end of the previous workshop based on the conclusion that issues of convective organization become more and more acute with increasing resolution of forecast models. The workshop started with two presentations from the perspectives of theoretical physics and of meteorological phenomenology, respectively, in order to better understand the mechanisms for convective organization. These two complementary perspectives were emphasized by considering the needs for introducing both a more solid theoretical basis as well as rich phenomenologies into current operational convection parameterizations. With a wide range of participants from operational forecast researchers to theoretical physicists, the workshop was focused on the basic issues as seen from these two complementary perspectives, and on seeking common ground for collaboration and interaction. Participants came from forecast research centers (AEM, BRMI, CHMI, DWD, ECMWF, FMI, Met Office, Meteo-France,