Pressure and Buoyancy Fields Derived from Doppler Radar Data in a Tornadic Thunderstorm

Abstract

Abstract A method for retrieval of pressure and buoyancy distributions in deep convection is applied to Doppler radar data collected at two analysis times during the tornadic Del City (Oklahoma) thunderstorm of 20 May 1977. Change of a previous version of the technique, necessitated by application to real data, include procedures for handling irregularly-bounded volumes and missing data and new assumptions to include reflectivity data and turbulent effects in the equations. Internal consistency cheeks on the quality of retrieved pressure fields imply that the input data are generally of good quality and point out times and heights within the storm at which greater confidence can be placed in the derived fields. In the pretornadic stage the pressure distribution includes at each level a high–low couplet across the updraft with the maximum pressure gradient generally oriented along the environmental shear vector at that altitude. These results are in agreement with predictions of linear theory. Locations of...