Mitch Moncrieff

Senior Scientist
TIIMES - MMM
WCAS - Gravity Waves - THORPEX - WCI

Contact Information:
PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000
Office: FL3 - 2024
Telephone: 303-497-8960
Email: moncrief@ucar.edu
Home Page

Project Summary:

International Collaborative Research: Multiscale Organized Tropical Convection and its Global Effects

To advance weather and climate analysis and prediction on timescales from days to years by surmounting fundamental barriers attributable to gaps in knowledge and the limited capability of contemporary operational and research numerical prediction systems to initiate and maintain multiscale organized tropical precipitating convective systems.

Basic research and high-resolution numerical modeling conducted in the Earth & Sun Systems Laboratory (ESSL) and in collaboration with universities:

• High-resolution modeling of tropical convection on regional-to-global scales as part of the MMM Prediction Across Scales research theme using the Advanced Weather Research Forecasting model and the Nested Regional Climate Model (MMM-nested regional climate model). Strategic contributions to the Earth System Model development in CGD.

• Diurnal cycle of convective precipitation over continents and parameterization of convective organization, collaborative with the TIIMES Water-Cycle Program.

• Mathematical modeling/basic cloud-system resolving modeling of multiscale convective organization in MMM, collaborative with Courant Institute/NYU; UC/Davis; University of Victoria, Canada; Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany.

• Understanding and improving MJO simulations in superparameterized global models, collaborative with the MJO Focus Theme of the CSU-based MMF STC.

International collaboration:
The research activities below have priority, to be followed by further activities as needs dictate and opportunities arise:

• United Kingdom: i) National Centres for Atmospheric Research (NCAS) Cascade activity based at the University of Reading, involving the MetOffice and a consortium of U.K. universities (tropical convective organization and the MJO during boreal winter); ii) ECMWF (interseasonal variability in medium-range and seasonal prediction models).

• India: MOU between NCAR and NCMRWF, the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting with university involvement (extreme weather in the Indian summer monsoon; intraseasonal variability).

• Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC): this new WCRP-THORPEX activity involves high-resolution prediction models and integrated multi-sensor satellite data for research and model validation purposes (Waliser and Moncrieff  2007). 

TIIMES External Collaborators:

Chris Bretherton, University of Washington
Gilbert Brunet, Environment Canada
Leo J Donner, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - GFDL, Princeton University
James A. Hansen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dennis L. Hartmann, University of Washington
Robert Houze, University of Washington
Richard Johnson, Colorado State University
George Kiladis, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
William K.-M. Lau, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) - NASA
Andrew Majda, New York University - Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Eric Maloney, Oregon State University
Brian Mapes, University of Miami
Steve Mullen, University of Arizona
Courtney Schumacher, Texas A&M University
Pam Stephens, National Science Foundation - GEO - ATM
Istvan Szunyogh, University of Maryland
Stefan Tulich, University of Colorado
Wen-wen Tung, Purdue University
Duane Waliser, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) - NASA - Caltech
Peter Webster, Georgia Institute of Technology
Chidong Zhang, University of Miami - Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science (RSMAS)

Publications:

Das, S., R. Ashrit, M. W. Moncrieff, M. Dasgupta, J. Dudhia, C. Liu, S. R. Kalsi, 2007: Simulation of intense organized convective precipitation observed during the Arabian Sea Monsoon Experiment (ARMEX). J. Geophys. Res. - Atmos., 112, doi: 10.1029/2006JD007627. (In Press)

Liu, C.-H., M. W. Moncrieff, 2007: Comparison of two land surface schemes in week-long cloud-system-resolving simulation of warm season precipitation. J. Appl. Meteor. Climat.. (Submitted)

Liu, C., M. W. Moncrieff, 2007: Sensitivity of cloud-resolving simulations of warm-season convection to cloud microphysics parameterizations. Mon. Wea. Rev., 135, 2854-2868, doi: 10.1175/MWR3437.1.

Lane, T. P., M. W. Moncrieff, 2007: Stratospheric gravity waves generated by multiscale tropical convection. J. Atmos. Sci.. (Submitted)

Hsu, H., M. Moncrieff, P. S. Sullivan, M. Dixon, J. D. Tuttle, 2007: Spatial statistical properties of multi-scale convective precipitation over North America. J. Climate. (Submitted)

Moncrieff, M. W., M. Shapiro, J. Slingo, F. Molteni, 2007: Collaborative research at the intersection of weather and climate. WMO Bulletin, 56, 206-211.

Biello, J. A., A. J. Majda, M. W. Moncrieff, 2007: Meriodional momentum flux and super-rotation in the multi-scale IPESD MJO model. J. Atmos. Sci., 64, 1636-1651.

Liu, C.-H., M. W. Moncrieff, J. D. Tuttle, 2007: Propagating rainfall episodes over the Bay of Bengal. Geophys. Res. Lett.. (Submitted)

Moncrieff, M. W., C. Liu, 2006: Representing convective organization in prediction models by a hybrid approach. J. Atmos. Sci., 63, 3404-3420.

Moncrieff, M. W., 2006: Orogenic organized propagating convective systems: Dynamics, parameterization, and numerical prediction. Rpt. No. 39/2006 - Math. Theory and Model. Atmos.-Ocean Sci. Wksp., Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2313-2314.

Hsu, H., M. W. Moncrieff, 2006: A new multiscale verification method: The error spectra. Developmental Testbed Center Visitor Rpt., Boulder, CO, US, NCAR.

Waliser, D., and M.W. Moncrieff, 2007:  Year of Tropical Convection: A joint WCRP-THORPEX activity to address the challenge of tropical convection. GEWEX News, 17, No. 2, 8-9.