Role of convective scale momentum transport in climate simulation

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Abstract
This paper studies the effect of convective‐scale momentum transport in climate simulation using a comprehensive parameterization scheme. A unique feature of the scheme is the inclusion of the perturbation pressure field induced by convection and its effect on the cloud momentum transport. Through two experiments of seasonal simulations, it is shown that the perturbation pressure forcing on the cloud momentum transport accounts for a significant part of the total convective momentum source/sink, indicating that the cloud momentum field is substantially modulated by the convection‐induced pressure field. The overall effect of convective momentum transport is to reduce the vertical wind shear in both the zonal and the meridional directions. The response of the large‐scale circulation to convective momentum transport is very significant. The zonally averaged zonal wind decreases by as much as 5 ms−1 in a broad area in the upper tropical troposphere and the midlatitudes of the winter hemisphere. The Hadley circulation becomes stronger as a result of the zonal momentum transport. In general, inclusion of convective momentum transport leads to a much better simulation of the wind fields in both the upper and the lower troposphere. The temperature and moisture changes as a result of the inclusion of convective momentum transport are also examined in this study. The tropical troposphere is warmer and more moist due to the enhanced Hadley circulation. However, considering the uncertainties of the climatological analyses, most of these thermodynamic changes only make marginal improvement to the simulation.