TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating the relative contributions of charge deposition and turbulence in organizing charge within a thunderstorm
AU - Brothers, Matthew D.
AU - Bruning, Eric C.
AU - Mansell, Edward R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Much of this work composed the master's degree thesis of Mr. Brothers at Texas Tech University. We thank Vicente Salinas and Dr. Johannes Dahl of Texas Tech University's Department of Geosciences' Atmospheric Science Group for their helpful contributions providing comments, ideas, and interest over the course of this study. Additionally, we thank Texas Tech University's High Performance Computing Center (HPCC) for providing the resources to conduct the model simulations presented in this study. This study was supported by the National Science Foundation Award AGS-1352144 under the CAREER Program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Meteorological Society.
PY - 2018/9/1
Y1 - 2018/9/1
N2 - Large-eddy-resolving simulations using the Collaborative Model for Multiscale Atmospheric Simulation (COMMAS), which contains microphysical charging and branched-lightning parameterizations, produce much more complex net charge structures than conventionally visualized from previous observations, simulations, and conceptual diagrams. Many processes contribute to the hydrometeor charge budget within a thunderstorm, including advection, hydrometeor differential sedimentation, subgrid turbulent mixing and diffusion, ion drift, microphysical separation, and the attachment of ion charge deposited by the lightning channel. The lightning deposition, sedimentation, and noninductive charging tendencies contribute the most overall charge at relatively large scales, while the advection tendency, from resolved turbulence, provides the most "texture" at small scales to the net charge density near the updraft region of the storm. The scale separation increases for stronger storm simulations. In aggregate, lightning deposition and sedimentation resemble the smoother distribution of the electric potential, while evidence suggests individual flashes could be responding to the fine texture in the net charge. The clear scale separation between the advection and other net charge tendencies suggest the charge advection is most capable of providing net charge texture; however, a clear-cut causality is not obtained from this study.
AB - Large-eddy-resolving simulations using the Collaborative Model for Multiscale Atmospheric Simulation (COMMAS), which contains microphysical charging and branched-lightning parameterizations, produce much more complex net charge structures than conventionally visualized from previous observations, simulations, and conceptual diagrams. Many processes contribute to the hydrometeor charge budget within a thunderstorm, including advection, hydrometeor differential sedimentation, subgrid turbulent mixing and diffusion, ion drift, microphysical separation, and the attachment of ion charge deposited by the lightning channel. The lightning deposition, sedimentation, and noninductive charging tendencies contribute the most overall charge at relatively large scales, while the advection tendency, from resolved turbulence, provides the most "texture" at small scales to the net charge density near the updraft region of the storm. The scale separation increases for stronger storm simulations. In aggregate, lightning deposition and sedimentation resemble the smoother distribution of the electric potential, while evidence suggests individual flashes could be responding to the fine texture in the net charge. The clear scale separation between the advection and other net charge tendencies suggest the charge advection is most capable of providing net charge texture; however, a clear-cut causality is not obtained from this study.
KW - Cloud resolving models
KW - Lightning
KW - Thunderstorms
KW - Turbulence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052625954&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1175/JAS-D-18-0007.1
DO - 10.1175/JAS-D-18-0007.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85052625954
VL - 75
SP - 3265
EP - 3284
JO - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
JF - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
SN - 0022-4928
IS - 9
ER -