Cloud Edge Energy Adjusts to the Saturated Tropospheric Mean Independent of Climate State

Abstract Large‐scale integral constraints on cloud behaviors can guide their more precise representation in present and future climates. We show theoretically that the mean moist static energy at cloud edge is nearly equivalent to the mean saturated static energy of the entire atmospheric domain, whether for a given level or for the cloudy troposphere as a whole. A numerical model simulation of a deep‐convective cloud field shows this equivalence holds over a 10 K range in sea surface temperature. The constraint offers a simple method for estimating the mean level of convective neutral buoyancy, one that rises linearly with the energy of sea surface air. The simulations suggest an interesting second constraint, that the maximum deviation of the saturated static energy profile from its tropospheric mean value is equivalent to the tropospheric mean energy of the saturation deficit.