This study uses large-eddy simulations to investigate processes of moist convection initiation (CI) over heterogeneous surface fluxes. Surface energy balance is imposed via a 1808 phase lag of the surface moisture flux (relative to the sensible heat flux), such that the relatively warm surface is relatively dry (and the relatively cool surface is relatively wet). As shown in previous simulations, a mesoscale circulation forms in the presence of surface-flux heterogeneity, which coexists with turbulent fluctuations. The mesoscale convergence zone of this circulation develops over the relatively warm surface, and this is where clouds first form. Convection initiation occurs sooner as the amplitude of the heterogeneity increases, and as the surface moisture increases (i.e., Bowen ratio decreases). Shallow clouds initiate when boundary layer heights (z i ) become greater than the lifting condensation level (LCL). Deep precipitating clouds initiate when the LCL and level of free convection (LFC) are roughly the same when averaged over the relatively warm surface, which is equivalent to the mean convective inhibition (CIN) becoming nearly zero. From the perspective of the entire (mesoscale) domain, cases with strongly heterogeneous surfaces have a wider distribution of both z i and LCL. Thus, a comparison of z i with LCL over a mesoscale area (i.e., within one mesoscale model grid box) may lead to misleading conclusions about CI and cloud-base height. It is also shown that as the amplitude of the surfaceflux heterogeneity increases the mesoscale convergence zone becomes narrower and stronger. Furthermore, CI occurs earlier over relatively wet surfaces partly because turbulent eddies are more vigorous owing to slightly greater buoyancy.

This study analyzes data collected by aircraft and surface flux sites over a 60-km north–south-oriented aircraft track for five fair-weather days during the International H2O Project (IHOP_2002) to investigate the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) structures over a heterogeneous land surface under different background weather conditions. The surface skin temperature distribution over the aircraft track in this case is mostly explained by the soil thermal properties and soil moisture, and corresponds to the observed ABL depths except one day having a weak surface temperature gradient and a weak capping inversion. For the other four days, the blending height of the surface heterogeneity likely exceeds the ABL depth and thus the ABL establishes equilibrium with local surface conditions. Among the four days, two days having relatively small Obukhov lengths are evaluated to show the background weather conditions under which small-scale surface heterogeneity can influence the entire ABL. In fact, on one of these two days, relatively small-scale features of the surface temperature distribution can be seen in the ABL depth distribution. On the two small Obukhov length days multiresolution spectra and joint probability distributions, which are applied to the data collected from repeated low-level aircraft passes, both imply the existence of surface-heterogeneity-generated mesoscale circulations on scales of 10 km or more. Also on these two small Obukhov length days, the vertical profiles of dimensionless variances of velocity, temperature, and moisture show large deviations from the similarity curves, which also imply the existence of mesoscale circulations.

Large-eddy simulation (LES) is used to examine the impact of heterogeneity in the surface energy balance on the mesoscale and microscale structure of the convective atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). A long (16 or 32 km) and narrow (5 km) domain of the convective ABL is forced with an imposed surface heat flux consisting of a constant background flux of 0.20 K m s Ϫ1 (250 W m Ϫ2 ) added to a sinusoidal perturbation of 16 or 32 km and whose amplitude varies from 0.02 to 0.20 K m s Ϫ1 (25-250 W m Ϫ2 ). The output is analyzed using a spatial filter, spectral analyses, and a wave-cutoff filter to show how the mesoscale and microscale components of the ABL respond to surface heterogeneity.The ABL response is divided by amplitude of heterogeneity into oscillatory and nonoscillatory mesoscale flows, with amplitudes of 0.08 K m s Ϫ1 (100 W m Ϫ2 ) and greater being oscillatory. Although mean ABL structure is disturbed relative to the homogeneous case for all heterogeneous cases, the microscale structure of the ABL in the quasi-steady flows retains characteristics of mixed-layer similarity. The vertical sensible heat flux is dominated in all cases by the microscale flux, with an interscale term becoming significant for high-amplitude cases and the mesoscale flux remaining small in all cases. Prior observations of ABLs over heterogeneous surfaces are consistent with the lower-amplitude cases. These results contradict past studies that suggest that heterogeneous surfaces lead to large mesoscale fluxes. The interscale flux and oscillatory microscale structures raise questions about the ability of mesoscale models to properly simulate the ABL in high-amplitude heterogeneity.

We investigate the response of moist convection to the spatial variation of surface sensible heat flux (SHF) in a mesoscale domain during the evolution of the afternoon convective boundary layer (CBL), using large-eddy simulation. The surface SHF heterogeneity in the domain is analytically created as a function of the spectral slope in the wavelength range from a few tens of kilometres to a few hundreds of metres in the SHF spectrum on a log-log scale. Assuming surface energy balance and spatially uniform available energy, the prescribed SHF has a phase lag of 180• with respect to the latent heat flux (LHF) in the domain. Two sets of three simulations are forced by heterogeneous surface SHF fields, which are characterized by similar statistics. One set, however, is created with a spectral slope of k −3 (where k is wave number) and the other with a slope of k −2 . All of the simulations are integrated with the same observation-based initial sounding favourable for moist convection.In all of the k