This work is the first from a series of four articles with the aim in analyzing how variations in microphysical parameters affect the life cycle of mixed-phase clouds, under different vertical stability conditions, using a Cloud Ensemble Model (CEM) version of the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) as a tool. Obtained data during the Intensive Observing Period (IOP) of the Tropical Ocean / Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) were used as external forcing for the CEM. In order to represent different tropical environments, such forcing was calculated for three regimes, depending on the convective activity: "mean", in which the average variables over the entire IOP was used as forcing; "active", during which convection was stronger; and "suppressed", when convective activity was less pronounced. For each regime, the average of the zonal and meridional wind velocity, and advective forcing (horizontal plus vertical) of the potential temperature and specific humidity were calculated. Those forcings schemes were assimilated by the CEM in different sensitivity tests, described along the following parts of this series of articles. In Part I, results from a control simulation are presented, showing how the CEM establishes a quasi-equilibrium state, resulting from the convective response to the stationary large scale forcing.
Tropical convection; TOGA-COARE; Cloud ensemble model; Cloud microphysics
