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Cloud-top entrainment instability?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2010

B. STEVENS
B. STEVENS*
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Bundesstrasse 53, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
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Abstract

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Mixing processes at cloud boundaries are thought to play a critical role in determining cloud lifetime, spatial extent and cloud microphysical structure. High-fidelity direct numerical simulations by Mellado (J. Fluid Mech., 2010, this issue, vol. 660, pp. 5–36) show, for the first time, the character and potency of a curious instability that may arise as a result of molecular mixing processes at cloud boundaries, an instability which until now has been thought by many to control the distribution of climatologically important cloud regimes.

JFM classification

Convection: Buoyancy-driven instability Convection: Moist convection Mixing: Turbulent mixing
Type
Focus on Fluids
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 660 , 10 October 2010 , pp. 1 - 4
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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