Abstract
Winston Churchill’s description of Russia—a mystery inside a riddle, wrapped in an enigma—might equally apply to moist convection. Almost one hundred and fifty years have passed since James Pollard Espy [1] first correctly inferred that cumulus clouds are driven by the release of latent heat when water vapor condenses, yet very fundamental aspects of moist convection—for example, the profiles of temperature and water vapor in moist convecting atmospheres—remain poorly understood. A satisfying description of the ensemble and individual properties of convective clouds remains an elusive but compelling frontier in atmospheric research, and one with profound consequences for weather and climate prediction.
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Emanuel, K.A. (1997). Overview of Atmospheric Convection. In: Smith, R.K. (eds) The Physics and Parameterization of Moist Atmospheric Convection. NATO ASI Series, vol 505. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8828-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8828-7_1
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