Computational Simulation using ACISS G. Bothun, C. Rasmusen (UO); S. Sessions (NMT) This research simulates how increases in the rate of deep tropical convection, driven primarily by elevated sea surface temperature, will change the nature of cyclonic disturbances that develop in equatorial waters. Simulated volume is 512x512 km x 20 km at 2 km horizontal resolution and 250 m vertical resolution.

Above: contours of rainflux over a 25 day period at 20 minutes time resolution (world record); largest evolving blobs are 50--100 km. 1 second of video = 2.5 hrs of real world time evolution. Upper right: Evolution of vertical velocities (color coded) in evolving plumes. This is a measure of dynamic and shear energy. Lower right: Visualization of convective cloud formation. Note the near breakthrough events in the upper left corner at late time steps. Such events may responsible for the observed increase in atmospheric humidity over the last 30 yrs.

Near Breakthrough Event: