Abstract. The current version of the Dutch AtmosphericLarge-Eddy Simulation (DALES) is presented. DALES is a large-eddy simulation code designed for studies of the physics of the atmospheric boundary layer, including convective and stable boundary layers as well as cloudy boundary layers. In addition, DALES can be used for studies of more specific cases, such as flow over sloping or heterogeneous terrain, and dispersion of inert and chemically active species. This paper contains an extensive description of the physical and numerical formulation of the code, and gives an overview of its applications and accomplishments in recent years.

Entrainment and detrainment processes have been recognised for a long time as key processes for cumulus convection and have recently witnessed a regrowth of interest mainly due to the capability of large-eddy simulations (LES) to diagnose these processes in more detail. This article has a twofold purpose. Firstly, it provides a historical overview of the past research on these mixing processes, and secondly, it highlights more recent important developments. These include both fundamental process studies using LES aiming to improve our understanding of the mixing process, but also more practical studies targeted toward an improved parametrised representation of entrainment and detrainment in large-scale models. A highlight of the fundamental studies resolves a long-lasting controversy by showing that lateral entrainment is the dominant mixing mechanism in comparison with the cloud-top entrainment in shallow cumulus convection. The more practical studies provide a wide variety of new parametrisations with sometimes conflicting approaches to the way in which the effect of the free tropospheric humidity on the lateral mixing is taken into account. An important new insight that will be highlighted is that, despite the focus in the literature on entrainment, it appears that it is rather the detrainment process that determines the vertical structure of the convection in general and the mass flux especially. Finally, in order to speed up progress and stimulate convergence in future parametrisations, stronger and more systematic use of LES is advocated.

In this study large-eddy simulations (LES) are used to gain more knowledge on the shell of subsiding air that is frequently observed around cumulus clouds. First, a detailed comparison between observational and numerical results is presented to better validate LES as a tool for studies of microscale phenomena. It is found that horizontal cloud profiles of vertical velocity, humidity, and temperature are in good agreement with observations. They show features similar to the observations, including the presence of the shell of descending air around the cloud. Second, the availability of the complete 3D dataset in LES has been exploited to examine the role of lateral mixing in the exchange of cloud and environmental air. The origin of the subsiding shell is examined by analyzing the individual terms of the vertical momentum equation. Buoyancy is found to be the driving force for this shell, and it is counteracted by the pressure-gradient force. This shows that evaporative cooling at the cloud edge, induced by lateral mixing of cloudy and environmental air, is the responsible mechanism behind the descending shell. For all clouds, and especially the smaller ones, the negative mass flux generated by the subsiding shell is significant. This suggests an important role for lateral mixing throughout the entire cloud layer. The role of the shell in these processes is further explored and described in a conceptual three-layer model of the cloud.

The rapid transition from shallow to deep convection is investigated using large-eddy simulations. The role of cold pools, which occur due to the evaporation of rainfall, is explored using a series of experiments in which their formation is suppressed. A positive feedback occurs: the presence of cold pools promotes deeper, wider, and more buoyant clouds with higher precipitation rates, which in turn lead to stronger cold pools. To assess the influence of the subcloud layer on the development of deep convection, the coupling between the cloud layer and the subcloud layer is explored using Lagrangian particle trajectories. As shown in previous studies, particles that enter clouds have properties that deviate significantly from the mean state. However, the differences between particles that enter shallow and deep clouds are remarkably small in the subcloud layer, and become larger in the cloud layer, indicating different entrainment rates. The particles that enter the deepest clouds also correspond to the widest cloud bases, which points to the importance of convective organization within the subcloud layer.

No abstract

Cloud size distributions of shallow cumulus cloud populations are calculated using the large-eddy simulation (LES) approach. A range of different cases is simulated, and the results are compared to observations of real cloud populations. Accordingly, the same algorithm is applied as in observational studies using high-altitude photography or remote sensing. The cloud size density of the simulated cloud populations is described well by a power law at the smaller sizes. This scaling covers roughly one order of magnitude of cloud sizes, with a power-law exponent of Ϫ1.70, which is comparable to exponents found in observational studies. A sensitivity test for the resolution suggests that the scaling continues at sizes smaller than the standard grid spacing. In contrast, on the other end, the scaling region is bounded by a distinct scale break. When the cloud size is nondimensionalized by the scale break size, the cloud size densities of all cases collapse. This corroborates the idea of a universal description for the whole cloud size density, with the scale break size as the only variable. The intermediate dominating size in the cloud fraction and mass flux decompositions is directly related to the presence of the scale break in the cloud size density. Despite their large number, the smallest clouds contribute very little to the total vertical mass transport. The intermediate size of the dominating clouds in the cloud fraction and mass flux is insensitive to the resolution of LES.

The length scale evolution of various quantities in a clear convective boundary layer (CBL), a stratocumulustopped boundary layer, and three radiatively cooled (''smoke cloud'') convective boundary layers are studied by means of large-eddy simulations on a large horizontal domain (25.6 ϫ 25.6 km 2 ). In the CBL the virtual potential temperature and the vertical velocity fields are dominated by horizontal scales on the order of the boundary layer depth. In contrast, the potential temperature and the specific humidity fields become gradually dominated by mesoscale fluctuations. However, at the mesoscales their effects on the virtual potential temperature fluctuations nearly compensate. It is found that mesoscale fluctuations are negligibly small only for conserved variables that have an entrainment to surface flux ratio close to Ϫ0.25, which is about the flux ratio for the buoyancy. In the CBL the moisture and potential temperature flux ratios can have values that significantly deviate from this number.The geometry of the buoyancy flux was manipulated by cooling the clear convective boundary layer from the top, in addition to a positive buoyancy flux at the surface. For these radiatively cooled cases it is found that both the vertical velocity as well as the virtual potential temperature spectra tend to broaden. The role of the buoyancy flux in their respective prognostic variance equations is discussed. It is argued that in the upper part of the clear CBL, where the mean vertical stratification is stable, vertical velocity variance and virtual potential temperature variance cannot be produced simultaneously. For the stratocumulus case, in which latent heat release effects in the cloud layer play an important role in its dynamics, the field of any quantity, except for the vertical velocity, becomes dominated by mesoscale fluctuations.In general, the location of the spectral peak of any quantity becoming constrained by the domain size should be avoided. The answer to the question of how large the LES horizontal domain size should be in order to include mesoscale fluctuations will, on the one hand, depend on the type of convection to be simulated and the kind of physical question one aims to address, and, on the other hand, the time duration of the simulation. Only if one aims to study the dynamics of a dry CBL that excludes moisture, a rather small domain size suffices. In case one aims to examine either the spatial evolution of the fields of any arbitrary conserved scalar in the CBL, or any quantity in stratocumulus clouds except for the vertical velocity, a larger domain size that allows the development of mesoscale fluctuations will be necessary.

The nighttime high-latitude stably stratified atmospheric boundary layer (SBL) is computationally simulated using high-Reynolds number large-eddy simulation on meshes varying from 200 3 to 1024 3 over 9 physical hours for surface cooling rates C r 5 [0.25, 1] K h 21 . Continuous weakly stratified turbulence is maintained for this range of cooling, and the SBL splits into two regions depending on the location of the lowlevel jet (LLJ) and C r . Above the LLJ, turbulence is very weak and the gradient Richardson number is nearly constant: Ri ; 0:25. Below the LLJ, small scales are dynamically important as the shear and buoyancy frequencies vary with mesh resolution. The heights of the SBL and Ri noticeably decrease as the mesh is varied from 200 3 to 1024 3 . Vertical profiles of the Ozmidov scale L o show its rapid decrease with increasing C r , with L o , 2 m over a large fraction of the SBL for high cooling. Flow visualization identifies ubiquitous warm-cool temperature fronts populating the SBL. The fronts span a large vertical extent, tilt forward more so as the surface cooling increases, and propagate coherently. In a height-time reference frame, an instantaneous vertical profile of temperature appears intermittent, exhibiting a staircase pattern with increasing distance from the surface. Observations from CASES-99 also display these features. Conditional sampling based on linear stochastic estimation is used to identify coherent structures. Vortical structures are found upstream and downstream of a temperature front, similar to those in neutrally stratified boundary layers, and their dynamics are central to the front formation.