Workshop on Spatial Organisation of Convection, Clouds and Precipitation
Today, the modelling of Earth's atmosphere is performed at such high spatio-temporal resolution, that it sometimes is difficult to distinguish observations from models. However, fundamental understanding of what drives pattern-formation in the cloud fields and its effect on precipitation and the cloud feedback remain to be uncovered. Extreme precipitation events - representing an immediate threat to humans and infrastructure - are still not well understood, but often related to the formation of cloud clusters. The basic mechanism underlying tropical cloud clustering over the ocean, leading to the Madden-Julian Oscillation and hurricanes, is not convincingly narrowed down.
This workshop aims to provide an interactive platform to present and discuss ongoing work and open questions about organised and self-organised phenomena in cloud fields. We especially invite thought-provoking contributions and new ideas.
The workshop aims to bring together the communities working on climate physics, statistical mechanics and meso-scale meteorology. The workshop will be organised around three core topics, mentioned below and in the scientific programme, along with some examples of the type of questions we would like to address.
A number of presentations will be on convection, but we are keen to also involve scientists working on related topics, such as soil-moisture and ocean (e.g. ocean mixed-layer) feedbacks.