Physical mechanisms controlling self-aggregation of convection in idealized numerical modeling simulations

We elucidate the physics of self-aggregation by applying a new diagnostic technique to the output of a cloud resolving model. Specifically, the System for Atmospheric Modeling is used to perform 3- D cloud system resolving simulations of radiative-convective equilibrium in a nonrotating framework, with interactive radiation and surface fluxes and fixed sea surface temperature (SST). We note that self-aggregation begins as a dry patch that expands, eventually forcing all the convection into a single clump. Thus, when examining the initiation of self-aggregation, we focus on processes that can amplify this initial dry patch. We introduce a novel method to quantify the magnitudes of the various feedbacks that control self-aggregation within the framework of the budget for the spatial variance of column-integrated frozen moist static energy. The absorption of shortwave radiation by atmospheric water vapor is found to be a key positive feedback in the evolution of aggregation. In addition, we find a positive wind speed-surface flux feedback whose role is to counteract a negative feedback due to the effect of air-sea enthalpy disequilibrium on surface fluxes. The longwave radiation feedback can be either positive or negative in the early and intermediate stages of aggregation; however, it is the dominant positive feedback that maintains the aggregated state once it develops. Importantly, the mechanisms that maintain the aggregate state are distinct from those that instigate the evolution of self-aggregation.