Ship wave signature at the cloud top of deep convective storms

Abstract

We identify certain features atop some thunderstorms observed by meteorological satellites as ship wave-like. A few examples of satellite visible images are shown and the ship wave signature patterns in them are identified and discussed. The presence of ship wave signatures implies the existence of a dynamical mechanism in the storm that behaves like an obstacle to the ambient flow. We use a numerical storm model simulation to show that this mechanism is due to the strong updraft and divergence in the upper part of the storm.