Wind Shear Effects in Convection–Permitting Models Influence MCS Rainfall and Forcing of Tropical Circulation

Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs) play a critical role in tropical rainfall patterns and circulations. To reduce persistent biases and improve understanding of the climate system, international groups have called for unprecedented investment in global convection–permitting (CP) climate models. It is essential such models accurately represent MCSs, and in particular environmental interactions such as dynamical control by wind shear. We show that in representative current generation CP simulations, MCS updraft entrainment decreases with shear, leading to a realistic increase of extreme rainfall. We find the control of environmental shear extends to mean storm rainfall and anvil heights. The simulation of these effects depends strongly on model physics in both CP and parameterized models. We show that in West Africa, MCS shear response influences the zonal distribution of storm diabatic heating, modifying upscale impacts of convection. Our results demonstrate key tests for focused process–based assessment of CP model fidelity. Plain Language Summary Movements of tropical air are driven by interactions between large, continental–scale circulations and localized deep convection — cells of ascending moist air reaching to the tropopause. These cells can aggregate to form Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs), long–lived thunderstorm clusters with large cold cloud shields that dominate tropical rainfall and atmospheric heating, forcing air circulations. Meanwhile, the strength of MCS rainfall depends on local atmospheric conditions. Such local process interactions occur on scales much smaller than typical global climate model grid spacings (>25 km), thus requiring a sub–grid parameterization of deep convection that introduces model biases. Here we show that kilometer–scale models can realistically capture the response of MCSs to local atmospheric moisture and wind conditions. A realistic response to the wind field relies on models showing variable mixing of dry environmental air into convective updrafts, with reduced rates for stronger vertical wind shear. We find that this wind (i.e., dynamical) control on MCSs explains patterns of mean rainfall biases in West Africa and influences atmospheric heating, likely mediating MCSs' upscale impacts on tropical circulations. Our results provide vital process–based methods for verifying the added value of explicitly representing convective storms in novel kilometer–scale global models. Key Points Convection‐permitting mode