The Role of Moist Processes in the Formation and Evolution of Mesoscale Snowbands within the Comma Head of Northeast U.S. Cyclones

Abstract

Abstract The role of moist processes in regulating mesoscale snowband life cycle within the comma head portion of three northeast U.S. cyclones is investigated using piecewise potential vorticity (PV) inversion, modeling experiments, and potential temperature tendency budgets. Snowband formation in each case occurred along a mesoscale trough that extended poleward of a 700-hPa low. This 700-hPa trough was associated with intense frontogenetical forcing for ascent. A variety of PV evolutions among the cases contributed to midlevel trough formation and associated frontogenesis. However, in each case the induced flow from diabatic PV anomalies accounted for a majority of the midlevel frontogenesis during the band’s life cycle, highlighting the important role that latent heat release plays in band evolution. Simulations with varying degrees of latent heating show that diabatic processes associated with the band itself were critical to the development and maintenance of the band. However, changes in the meso-α-scale flow associated with the development of diabatic PV anomalies east of the band contributed to frontolysis and band dissipation. Conditional stability was reduced near 500 hPa in each case several hours prior to band formation. This stability remained small until band formation, when the stratification generally increased in association with the release of conditional instability. Previous studies have suggested that the dry slot is important for the initial stability reduction at midlevels, but this was not evident for the three banding cases examined. Rather, differential horizontal temperature advection in moist southwest flow ahead of the upper trough was the dominant process that reduced the midlevel conditional stability.