Seminar Talk - Criticality and bistability in the tropical convective cloud field

Mathematical and Theoretical Physics Seminar (MTPS):

Criticality and bistability in the tropical convective cloud field

Jan Olaf Mirko Härter (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen; Jacobs University; Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung)

Whereas Rayleigh-Bénard convection is a classical problem in fluid dynamics and complex systems, atmospheric moist convection harbors a number of additional phenomena, such as large-scale segregation into cloudy and cloud-free subregions (known as convective self-aggregation) or the emergence of mesoscale convective systems - self-organized clusters of convective cells. Treating the population of convective cells as a form of interacting particle system, we discuss several simple toy models, which highlight some mechanisms involved in tropical cloud organization. We make contact to results obtained from idealized fluid dynamics simulations of the tropical atmosphere and highlight, where discrepancies between simulations and observations exist and could be bridged.

Talks organized by Stefan Kettemann, Sören Petrat, and Peter Schupp

Usual time: Thursdays, 13:00-14:00

Location: for most of the semester the seminar will be online (access data will be sent around to the mailing list shortly before the talks; please write an email to Sören Petrat (s.petrat@jacobs-university.de) for the access data to specific talks or to be added to the mailing list).
All times are German time zone.