Simulations of moist convection by a variational multiscale stabilized finite element method

A variational multiscale stabilized finite element scheme is presented for the solution of moist atmospheric flows. The fully compressible Euler equations are coupled to a system of three advection equations that model the transport of water quantities in the atmosphere. A Kessler-type parametrization of microphysical processes of warm rain is used. Because analytic solutions to this problem are not available, the model is assessed by comparison with similar simulations presented in the literature. The metrics for evaluation are the intensity and spatial distribution of the storm, its duration, the location of precipitation, and water accumulation at different grid resolutions. The current model is able to capture the principal features of two-dimensional convective storms and orographic clouds at the grid scales typical of mesoscale atmospheric simulations. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.