Saturation-ratio Fluctuations from Scalar Transport in Moist
Rayleigh-Bénard Convection: One-dimensional-turbulence simulation
Abstract
A careful characterization of moisture fluxes and saturation-ratio
statistics in atmospheric convection is significant for cloud
microphysical processes and dynamics. The saturation-ratio of water
vapor is defined as the ratio of actual water vapor pressure and its
equilibrium value at a given air temperature. Therefore, it is a
function of two scalars (water vapor and temperature) and is coupled
through the nonlinear Clausius-Clapeyron equation. Participation of both
scalar fields in the convection process and the nonlinear coupling of
both scalars in saturation-ratio make this problem more complex, as
compared to its dry-convection counterpart. We have explored heat and
water vapor fluxes and saturation-ratio statistic in the moist
Rayleigh-Bénard convection case, using the one-dimensional-turbulence
(ODT) model developed by Wunsch et al. JFM 2005. This idealized
small-scale simulation is a step toward understanding the full
atmospheric convection problem at a more fundamental level. We have
obtained the thermal and moisture fluxes as a function of the
non-dimensional buoyancy parameter, also known as moist Rayleigh number,
and compared it with the scaling relations. Moreover, we have examined
the mean and variance profiles of saturation-ratio, and analyzed the
different contributing terms for saturation-ratio fluctuations. Based on
the scaling analysis, a simplified relation between saturation-ratio
variance and moist Rayleigh number has been derived and compared with
the simulation results. Additionally, we found that different values of
water vapor and thermal diffusivities make the saturation-ratio pdf
broader than the case when they are considered equal.