IL-GLOBO (1.0) – development and verification of the moist convection module

Abstract

Abstract. The development and verification of the convective module of IL-GLOBO, a Lagrangian transport model coupled online with the Eulerian general circulation model GLOBO, is described. The online-coupling promotes the full consistency between the Eulerian and the Lagrangian components of the model. The Lagrangian convective scheme is based on the Kain–Fritsch convective parametrization used in GLOBO. A transition probability matrix is computed using the fluxes provided by the Eulerian KF parametrization. Then, the convective redistribution of Lagrangian particles is implemented via a Monte Carlo scheme. The formal derivation is described in details and, consistently with the Eulerian module, includes the environmental flux in the transition probability matrix to avoid splitting of the convection and subsidence processes. Consistency of the Lagrangian implementation with its Eulerian counterpart is verified by computing environment fluxes from the transition probability matrix and comparing them to those computed by the Eulerian module. Assessment of the impact of the module is made for different latitudinal belts, showing that the major impact is found in the Tropics, as expected. Concerning vertical distribution, the major impact is observed in the boundary layer at every latitude, while in the tropical area, the influence extends to very high levels.