EGS XXVI General Assembly, Nice, France, March 2001

OA10. Moist convection and mesoscale processes:

Report

For the third time the "Moist Convection" session has been organized. With a total number of 20 oral and 6 poster contributions the participation was fairly constant with respect to the last year. The session covered a wide range of convection related subjects and was grouped into two subsessions. The morning session was dedicated to more theoretical aspects of convection including "Quasi-equilibrium", "convective adjustment", "mass flux spectrum" and the diurnal variation of tropical rainfall. But also included observations of the structure of the migrating ITCZ as well as satellite observations of convective cloud systems. The afternoon session was then focused on modelling studies of convection including Regional Climate Model studies of summertime continental precipitation, cumulus initiation over complex terrain, and one-dimensional model studies of observed deep and shallow convective events that pointed out weaknesses in present convection parameterization schemes. For the first time we also had two studies on the transport of chemical species by convection, one using a high resolution Global chemical Transport Model and one using a Cloud Resolving Model. Finally, poster presentations treated the mesoscale forecast of convective events in Europe and investigated the recycling rate of water through the radioactive composition of Amazonia precipitation. It is hoped that the present session further helps to develop research in atmospheric convection in Europe and motivates young students. With the next year Jun-Ichi Yano takes the lead of this session and will be assisted by the present convener. 

Peter Bechtold