Assessment of several moist adiabatic processes associated with convective energy calculation

Abstract

Several methods dealing with the moist adiabatic process are described in this paper. They are based on static energy conservation, pseudo-equivalent potential temperature conservation, the strict pseudo-adiabatic equation, and the reversible moist adiabatic process, respectively. Convective energy parameters, which are closely related to the moist adiabatic process and which reflect the gravitational effects of condensed liquid water, are reintroduced or defined, including MCAPE [Modified-CAPE (convective available potential energy)], DCAPE (Downdraft-CAPE), and MDCAPE (Modified-Downdraft-CAPE). Two real case analyses with special attention given to condensed liquid water show that the selection of moist adiabatic process does affect the calculated results of CAPE and the gravitational effects of condensed liquid water are not negligible in severe storms. Intercomparisons of these methods show that static energy conservation is consistent with pseudo-equivalent potential temperature conservation not only in physical properties but also in calculated results, and both are good approximations to the strict pseudo-adiabatic equation. The lapse rate linked with the reversible moist adiabatic process is relatively smaller than that linked with other moist adiabatic processes, especially when considering solidification of liquid water in the reversible adiabatic process.