A Climatology of Precipitating Open-Cell Convection over the Northeast Gulf of Alaska

Abstract

AbstractThis brief paper addresses the frequency of precipitating open-cell convection over the northeastern Gulf of Alaska during a 5-yr period (2002–06). The research employs 154 previously documented satellite synthetic aperture radar–derived wind speed (SDWS) images that contain open-cell convection signatures. Each SDWS image is paired with a near-in-time, National Weather Service Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler Level-III 0.5°-elevation-angle short-range base reflectivity image from coastal Alaska for which coverage spatially overlaps open-cell convection signatures. The time difference between any two images of a single pair is typically a few minutes or less. For 65% of the image pairs, at least one SDWS open-cell convection signature in the overlap region is associated with precipitation. That percentage may be conservative given the method used in this research. Thus, the results of this research support a suggestion that has been posed in previous studies that the organization of open-cell convection can be controlled by the interaction of the environmental vertical wind shear and precipitation-driven cold pools.