Cloud interactions and merging - Numerical simulations

Abstract A total of 48 numerical experiments have been performed to study cloud interactions and merging by means of a two-dimensional multi-cell model. Two soundings of deep convection during GATE and two different magnitudes of large-scale lifting.have been used as the initial conditions and as the main forcing on the model. Over two hundred groups of cloud systems with a life history of over sixty minutes have been generated under the influence of different combinations of the stratification and large-scale lifting. The results demonstrate the increase in convective activity and in amount of precipitation with increased intensity of large-scale lifting. The results also show increased occurrence of cloud merger with increased intensity of large-scale lifting. The most unfavorable environmental conditions for cloud merging are 1) less unstable stratification of the atmosphere and 2) weaker large-scale lifting. A total of fourteen cloud systems qualify as mergers. Two selected cases will be described dyn...