Convective mass flux

convective mass flux

An average vertical transport of mass for a field of cumulus clouds or thermals.

This mass flux M_c is given by

where ρ is air density, σ is fraction of area covered by updrafts, w_up is the vertical velocity averaged across all updrafts, and w_down is the vertical velocity averaged over all downdrafts. With the mass flux, one can describe the average turbulent vertical flux of any conserved variable, such as potential temperature θ in cloudless thermals, by

where

is the vertical kinematic heat flux, θ_up is the potential temperature averaged across all updrafts, and θ_down is the potential temperature averaged across all downdrafts. This method allows population-wide statistics to be described, without needing characteristics of individual updrafts and downdrafts.

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