Forcing and Organization of Convective Systems

Abstract

Perhaps as in no other area of meteorology, radar has proven to be the key tool in modern detection and forecasting, as well as in identifying and understanding the physics, of convective storms and convective systems. From its initial deployment as a research tool following the second World War [see the excellent review of the history of radar meteorology in chapter 1 of the AMS monograph Radar in Meteorology, edited by Dave Atlas (Fletcher 1990)], radar has played a fundamental role in increasing our understanding of the forces that initiate and organize severe storms and larger convective systems that are composed of a conglomeration of convective storm cells. Early radar observations were primarily descriptive and showed the tremendous variety of types and sizes of precipitating moist convection (see reviews by Browning 1990; Parsons et al. 1990; Ray 1990; Carbone et al. 1990b; Smull 1995). Examples of types include single convective storms, longer-lived multicellular storms, fast-moving squall lines, slower-moving linear and nonlinear convective systems, and long-lived supercell storms. Although this review emphasizes the role played by radar in observational studies of convective storms and systems, the ever-increasing use of numerical models in explaining the dynamics of precipitating convective systems has resulted in the inclusion of many of those studies. Moreover, we believe numerical models will play an increasing role in extending our understanding of these phenomena by providing information on variables and in areas that are unobserved by radar and other instruments. Likewise, the accuracy of simulations that involve unavoidable parameterization of unresolved or poorly understood physics must be verified against data from the same observing systems.