Abstract

The effects of quasi-two-dimensional convective bands on the environmental flow are investigated by comparing the observed mass and momentum fluxes and horizontal pressure changes to those predicted by the Moncrieff archetypal model (M92). The model idealizes the organized convection as two-dimensional and steady state, with three flow branches—a front-to-rear jump updraft, a front overturning updraft, and a rear overturning current, which can be an updraft or a downdraft. Flow through the branches satisfies mass continuity and Bernoulli's equation. The vertical divergence of line-normal momentum flux averaged over the volume is constrained to be zero. Coriolis and buoyancy effects are neglected. The model predicts the vertical mass flux, the vertical divergence of the vertical flux of line-normal momentum, and the pressure change across the line (independent of height). A simple equation for the vertical transport of line-parallel momentum follows from the model assumptions.

Case studies show a systematic linkage of fluxes and structure and a relationship of some of these changes to differences in the environmental sounding. The M92 successfully replicates the general shapes of the vertical mass flux and line-normal momentum flux profiles, and to some degree how they change with environment. The M92 correctly predicts both the magnitude and shape of the curves in cases occurring in near-neutral environments (low buoyancy or high shear) and with system width-to-depth ratios close to the dynamically based value of 4:1. The model is less successful for systems in more unstable environments or those with large horizontal extent, probably due to the neglect of the generation of horizontal momentum by the buoyancy distribution. The observed sign of the average pressure changes across the line is consistent with that predicted by the model in the upper half of the system, where some case studies suggest that buoyancy effects should be minimized. Letting the model (4:1 aspect ratio) represent the dynamically active part of a mesoscale system, the rearward advective broadening of the inert anvil region is simply related to the (rearward) outflow speed of the jump updraft, U ₁. Since U ₁ increases as tropospheric shear decreases, the model correctly associates broad mesoscale systems with small tropospheric shear. Success in predicting the vertical flux of line-parallel momentum was fair.

Abstract

Oceanic cumulonimbus updraft and downdraft events observed in the Western Pacific during the TAMEX program by NOAA P-3 research aircraft are analyzed and discussed. The basic dataset consists of flight-level data from 10 missions in the Taiwan region during May and June 1987. The 1 Hz time series of vertical velocity is used to define convective updrafts using the criteria that the velocity must be continuously positive for at least 0.5 km and exceed 0.5 m s⁻¹ for 1 s. A subset of the strongest drafts, termed cores, are defined as events that exceed 1 m s⁻¹ for 0.5 km. Downdrafts and downdraft cores are defined analogously. The statistics are from a total of 12 841 km of flight legs and consist of 359 updrafts and 466 downdrafts at altitudes from 150 m to 6.8 km MSL. The populations of average vertical velocity, maximum vertical velocity, diameter, and mass transport for both drafts and cores are approximately log-normally distributed, consistent with the results of previous studies of convective characteristics in other locations. TAMEX drafts and cores are comparable in size and strength with those measured in GATE and hurricanes but much weaker than those measured in continental thunderstorms.

The median core updraft was less than 3 m s⁻¹, implying a time scale for ascent from cloud base to the freezing level of about 35 min. The microphysical implications of the low updraft rates are illustrated by comparing vertical profiles of radar reflectivity for TAMEX with those in other regions. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that the oceanic convection that was studied in GATE, hurricanes, and TAMEX is dominated by warm rain coalescence processes and that a large fractional rainout occurs below the freezing level. The rapid reduction of cloud water and radar reflectivity above the freezing level, as well as observations of abundant ice particles in all but the strongest updraft cores at temperatures just below 0°C, implies a rapid conversion of cloud water and rain to ice and graupel as the air ascends through the freezing level. The, lack of reports of hail and other forms of severe weather in these oceanic regions is consistent with the aircraft and radar observations.

The data from the “best” organized weather system investigated by the P-3 during TAMEX are used to examine the relationship of cloud buoyancy and vertical motion. Water loading and entrainment has a significant role in reducing both the core virtual temperature excess over the environment and the updraft velocity from what would be expected from the convective available potential energy of the environmental air. The majority of the strongest downdrafts possess positive temperature perturbations (probably as a result of mixing with nearby updraft air) with the negative buoyancy being sustained by large amounts of rainwater.

Abstract

This is the second paper of a two-part series documenting the structure of and momentum transport by a subtropical mesoscale convective system near Taiwan, using Doppler radar data and in situ data from the NOAA P-3. Part I defines the basic system structure and evolution. In Part II, the momentum transport by the system is estimated and related to system structure, and the momentum budget for a portion of the embedded convective band is evaluated.

Profiles of the vertical flux of horizontal momentum are constructed from in situ data, Doppler radar data, and both combined, in a coordinate system with u normal to the line and positive eastward, since the low-level air is feeding the line from the east. Differences in the fluxes from the two sources appear to be mainly due to an underestimation of the mean vertical velocity from the Doppler radar data. The discrepancy results partially from the concentration of convergence in the boundary layer—precisely where the Doppler cannot adequately sample the convergence—and partially from Doppler problems above 5 km. However, the momentum-flux profile generated from both data sources has features consistent with the structure of the line: p̄ uw is negative at lower levels, consistent with the westward tilt of most updrafts at those levels, and positive at upper levels, consistent with the updrafts' eastward tilt. This positive flux is countergradient and not consistent with previous observations, but is suggested in numerical simulations of systems in an environment similar to that for this system, with relatively low convective available potential energy(CAPE), high relative humidity aloft, and positive u shear through the depth of the system. The simulated systems have relatively weak updrafts and gust fronts, also matching this case. The flux p̄ vw is downgradient above ∼5 km and countergradient below, but is consistent with the average positive vertical velocity carrying southerlies (V̄>0) upward.

The momentum budget reveals some behavior that differs from that of earlier systems such as that studied by Lafore et al. For example, above 7 km the momentum transport and pressure gradient reinforce to produce substantial acceleration of air exiting the band at high levels toward the front (east), although the vertical transport contributes only a small amount to the observed acceleration. The u positive acceleration at higher levels, being larger than the Doppler estimates of dŪ/dt at lower levels, increases the overall u shear within the convective band. Estimation of the vertical momentum-flux divergence and pressure-gradient term at low levels from the in situ data supports this results. In previously observed tropical systems, u shear was increased by convective bands only when the u shear was negative. At midlevels, the vertical transport of line-parallel wind (v) by the line acts to increase and slightly elevate the southerly jet maximum in the environmental wind profile usually seen in this region. As in previously documented systems, dV̄/dz decreases with time within the band.

Statistics regarding the fractional participation of women in meteorology/atmospheric sciences gathered by the AMS are quite similar to those based on annual National Science Foundation (NSF) surveys. The absolute numbers in the biennial AMS/UCAR survey of academic departments for the Curricula series ceased being useful by around 2005, when many departments stopped participating fully, but numbers from less-frequent direct AMS membership surveys have been increasing. Despite the limitations of the AMS data, the NSF statistics confirm conclusions from an earlier analysis of AMS data. Both numbers and percentages are required to tell the evolving story of the atmospheric sciences' “pipeline.” Furthermore, after correction of an error regarding the AMS statistics in our 2010 paper, both NSF and AMS data show the same increase in the proportion of women graduate students in the field over the last four decades, as well as an apparent leveling off at approximately one-third.

Abstract

Aircraft and airborne millimeter-wave radar observations are used to interpret the dynamics of radar echoes and radar-inferred updrafts within the well-developed, weakly sheared continental convective boundary layer. Vertically pointing radar reflectivity and Doppler velocity data collected above and below the aircraft, flying along fixed tracks in the central Great Plains during the International H₂O Project (IHOP_2002), are used to define echo plumes and updraft plumes, respectively. Updraft plumes are generally narrower than echo plumes, but both types of plumes have the dynamical properties of buoyant eddies, especially at low levels. This buoyancy is driven both by temperature excess and water vapor excess over the ambient air. Plumes that are better defined in terms of reflectivity or updraft strength tend to be more buoyant.

Abstract

Airborne Doppler and flight-level data are used to document the structure and evolution of portions of a late-stage horseshoe-shaped squall line system and its effect on vertical momentum and mass transports. This system, which occurred on 20 February 1993 during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment, was similar to many previously studied, but had some unique features. First, a slow-moving transverse band, which formed the southern leg of the horseshoe, drew most of its low-level updraft air from the squall-line stratiform region on its north side rather than the “environment” to the south. Second, a long-lived cell with many properties similar to a midlatitude supercell, formed 150 km to the rear of the squall line. This cell was tracked for 4 h, as it propagated into and then through the cold pool, and finally dissipated as it encountered the convection forming the northern edge of the horseshoe. Finally, as the squall line was dissipating, a new convective band formed well to its rear.

The transverse band and the long-lived cell are discussed in this paper. Quadruple-Doppler radar data, made possible by tightly coordinated flights by the two NOAA P3s, are used to document the flow with unprecedented accuracy. At lower levels, the transverse band flow structure is that of a two-dimensional convective band feeding on its north side, with vertical fluxes of mass and horizontal momentum a good match to the predictions of the Moncrieff archetype model. At upper levels, the transverse band flow is strongly influenced by the squall line, whose westward-tilting updraft leads to much larger vertical velocities than predicted by the model. The long-lived cell, though weak, has supercell-like properties in addition to its longevity, including an updraft rotating in the sense expected from the environmental hodograph and an origin in an environment whose Richardson number falls within the Weisman–Klemp “supercell” regime.

Abstract

High-resolution 24-h runs of the Advanced Research version of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model are used to test eight objective methods for estimating convective boundary layer (CBL) depth h, using four planetary boundary layer schemes: Yonsei University (YSU), Mellor–Yamada–Janjic (MYJ), Bougeault–LaCarrere (BouLac), and quasi-normal scale elimination (QNSE). The methods use thresholds of virtual potential temperature Θ_υ, turbulence kinetic energy (TKE), Θ_υ,z , or Richardson number. Those that identify h consistent with values found subjectively from modeled Θ_υ profiles are used for comparisons to fair-weather observations from the 1997 Cooperative Atmosphere–Surface Exchange Study (CASES-97).

The best method defines h as the lowest level at which Θ_υ,z = 2 K km⁻¹, working for all four schemes, with little sensitivity to horizontal grid spacing. For BouLac, MYJ, and QNSE, TKE thresholds did poorly for runs with 1- and 3-km grid spacing, producing irregular h growth not consistent with Θ_υ-profile evolution. This resulted from the vertical velocity W associated with resolved CBL eddies: for W > 0, TKE profiles were deeper and Θ_υ profiles more unstable than for W < 0. For the 1-km runs, 25-point spatial averaging was needed for reliable TKE-based h estimates, but thresholds greater than free-atmosphere values were sensitive to horizontal grid spacing. Matching Θ_υ(h) to Θ_υ(0.05h) or Θ_υ at the first model level were often successful, but the absence of eddies for 9-km grids led to more unstable Θ_υ profiles and often deeper h.

Values of h for BouLac, MYJ, and QNSE, are mostly smaller than observed, with YSU values close to slightly high, consistent with earlier results.

Abstract

We examine the pressure fields wound the cloud-base updraft of three cumulus clouds observed in environments with low vertical shear of the horizontal wind near cloud base. These fields are compared to the corresponding pressure fields beneath convective clouds embedded in moderate to large shear. All of the pressure fields are derived from aircraft measurements taken during the 1981 Cooperative Convective Experiment, CCOPE.

The pressure fields associated with these low-shear clouds are weaker than those for the clouds in higher shear. Furthermore, the low-shear fields are not consistently dominated by the dynamic pressure created by the interaction of the cloud-base updraft with the vertical shear of the horizontal wind. The weaker dynamic pressure is due to the smaller size and intensity of the cloud-base updraft as well as the smaller vertical shear of the horizontal wind. The reduction of the dynamic Pressure allows buoyancy effects on the pressure field to become more apparent.

Abstract

Examination of aircraft and rawinsonde data gathered in nine tropical mesoscale convective line cases indicates that all but two lines systematically increased front-to-rear momentum at heights greater than about 4 km, and rear-to-front momentum at lower levels, where “front” is defined as the direction toward which the line is moving. The convective lines were characterized by a leading 10–20 km wide band of convective clouds, and a trailing region of stratiform cloudiness. Most wore “propagating” lines, moving into the wind at all levels. Consistent with mixing-length theory, the vertical transport of the horizontal wind component parallel to the lines was down the vertical gradient of the component, resulting in a decrease of its vertical shear. Smaller, more random cloud groups and the upper portions of a convective line with isolated towers transported both components of horizontal momentum downgradient.

Normalization of the vertical flux of horizontal momentum normal to the line (u′¯w′¯) suggests that it is achieved mainly by updraft cores which could be traced to the undisturbed mixed layer ahead of the line. The air in the cores is accelerated upward and backward into a mesoscale area of low pressure located in the rear portion of the line's leading convective region. The low pressure is primarily hydrostatic, its intensity proportional to the depth and average buoyancy of the cloudy air overhead. However, dynamic pressure effects are important where convective cores are particularly concentrated. From the aircraft data, the momentum transport by the trailing, stratiform region appears small, but this conclusion needs confirmation by sensing platforms more suited to gathering mesoscale wind field data. The failure to account for the momentum transport properties of two-dimensional convective lines might explain the lack of success in parameterizing the effects of cumulus clouds on the mean wind profile.