Convection is a key physical process that plays an important role in tropospheric circulation and climate controlling the vertical temperature gradient and water vapor distribution. It produces extreme weather events and vast precipitation. But convection also affects global and regional chemistry balances, transporting chemical constituents from the boundary layer upward to the tropopause level. Lightning, associated with the strong convective events, is key source of NOx in the upper troposphere, which is important for tropospheric ozone production. Aging anvils from deep convection produce cirrus clouds that control the radiative balance of the Earth in the tropics. Deep convection can penetrate into the lower stratosphere forcing stratosphere-troposphere mixing. Gravity waves generated by convective cells propagate into the stratosphere and mesosphere, and breaking near the mesopause level at the altitudes of 100 km, release energy and momentum that drive middle atmosphere circulation. Unfortunately, convection is driven by the processes that have very fine spatial scales that are not resolved in up-to-date climate models. Improving of the effect of convection in climate and weather forecast models has been a challenge for decades.

It is important to better quantify the effect of convection on atmospheric physics using models that can describe important aspects of convective activity from "first principles." In my talk I will discuss a few case studies conducted using cloud resolving models. I will focus on the effect of convection on tropospheric ozone, stratosphere-troposphere exchange, and gravity wave generation.

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