Atmosphere Ocean Science Friday Seminar

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Turbulent Kinetic Energy Generation by Atmospheric Convection

Speaker: Tea Susskind

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1314

Date: Friday, April 3, 2026, 4 p.m.

Synopsis:

Atmospheric convection remains one of the most difficult phenomena to characterize in climate models, particularly in cloudy air. The advancements in global cloud-resolving models over the last two decades provide a powerful tool for multi-scale analysis of convection because it gives us access to the building blocks of quantities which can quantify the vertical motions in the atmosphere. Turbulent kinetic energy created by buoyancy flux, the correlation of buoyancy and vertical velocity, maintains a stratified convecting cloud layer.  Coarse-graining this data reveals the location and scale of atmospheric transport, providing us with a more complete thermodynamic understanding of atmospheric convection.