Types Of Convective Systems Research Articles

A high-resolution unified observational data product of mesoscale convective systems and isolated deep convection in the United States for 2004–2017

Abstract. Deep convection possesses markedly distinct properties at different spatiotemporal scales. We present an original high-resolution (4 km, hourly) unified data product of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) and isolated deep convection (IDC) in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and examine their climatological characteristics from 2004 to 2017. The data product is produced by applying an updated Flexible Object Tracker algorithm to hourly satellite brightness temperature, radar reflectivity, and precipitation datasets. Analysis of the data product shows that MCSs are much larger and longer-lasting than IDC, but IDC occurs about 100 times more frequently than MCSs, with a mean convective intensity comparable to that of MCSs. Hence both MCS and IDC are essential contributors to precipitation east of the Rocky Mountains, although their precipitation shows significantly different spatiotemporal characteristics. IDC precipitation concentrates in summer in the Southeast with a peak in the late afternoon, while MCS precipitation is significant in all seasons, especially for spring and summer in the Great Plains. The spatial distribution of MCS precipitation amounts varies by season, while diurnally, MCS precipitation generally peaks during nighttime except in the Southeast. Potential uncertainties and limitations of the data product are also discussed. The data product is useful for investigating the atmospheric environments and physical processes associated with different types of convective systems; quantifying the impacts of convection on hydrology, atmospheric chemistry, and severe weather events; and evaluating and improving the representation of convective processes in weather and climate models. The data product is available at https://doi.org/10.25584/1632005 (Li et al., 2020).

On the role of ice-nucleating aerosol in the formation of ice particles in tropical mesoscale convective systems.

Over decades, the cloud physics community has debated the nature and role of aerosol particles in ice initiation. The present study shows that the measured concentration of ice crystals in tropical mesoscale convective systems exceeds the concentration of ice nucleating particles (INPs) by several orders of magnitude. The concentration of INPs was assessed from the measured aerosol particles concentration in the size range of 0.5 to 1 µm. The observations from this study suggest that primary ice crystals formed on INPs make only a minor contribution to the total concentration of ice crystals in tropical mesoscale convective systems. This is found by comparing the predicted INP number concentrations with in-situ ice particle number concentrations. The obtained measurements suggest that ice multiplication is the likely explanation for the observed high concentrations of ice crystals in this type of convective system.

Mesoscale extreme rainfall events in West Africa: The cases of Niamey (Niger) and the Upper Ouémé Valley (Benin)

Abstract In West Africa, a sharp decrease in rainfall has occurred in conjunction with an increase in flood damage since 1970. The material damage and loss of life resulting from floods highlights the undeniable vulnerability of populations to this threat and illustrates the importance of addressing the evolution of hazardous precipitation caused by intense rainstorms. This work aims to improve our knowledge of the behaviour of extreme rainfall in West Africa by studying the sub-hourly, hourly and daily evolution of the most extreme rainfall events, a topic that is especially important to those interested in studying the links between heavy rainfall and flash flooding or inundation. This study analyses the classes of extreme rainfall events in two distinct climatic areas within West Africa using the meteorological scales relevant to rainfall processes. The study is based on two precipitation datasets recorded by dense networks of rain gauges set up within the meso-sites of Niamey (Niger, Sahelian area) and the Upper Oueme Valley (Northern Benin, Soudanian zone) from 2000 to 2010 and 1998 to 2010, respectively. The Gumbel distribution was used to analyse the frequency of the maximum rainfall series for durations varying from 5 min to 24 h. The reliability of this model was examined, and the Intensity-Density-Frequency (IDF) curves derived from it were used to estimate the critical rainfall intensities at each site. The results returned exceeded frequencies that were useful for the isolation and classification of extreme rainfall cases using temporal characteristics. The climatological results confirm the existence of a latitudinal gradient in the mean annual rainfall and number of extreme events at the mesoscale. The classification methods illustrate clear distinctions between local, meso and synoptic scale events derived from convective systems over the Sahel. In contrast, Soudanian climate conditions lead to a nesting of the phenomena involved in the formation of cloud systems, making it difficult to classify rain events in that area. However, we were able to utilize the duration of rainfall events within this zone to discriminate between types of convective systems that cause extreme rainfall. For both areas, the proportion of precipitation in an extreme event compared to total yearly precipitation served as a suitable additional criterion used to objectively identify extreme precipitation event types.

Characteristics of Vertical Velocity Cores in Different Convective Systems Observed over Gadanki, India

Abstract The Indian mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar measurements during the passage of 60 convective systems are used to study the vertical air velocity (w) characteristics of tropical convection. The up- and downdraft cores and various stages/types of convection (shallow, deep, and decaying) are discerned from radar time–intensity maps of w. The characteristics of cores (speed, size, orientation, vertical extent, gravity wave activity, etc.) at different stages of convection are discussed with the help of three case studies. The cores stratified based on the type of convection are mostly erect in nature in all types of convective systems, except for deep updraft cores. A considerable percentage (35%) of deep updraft cores show inclined structure with elevation angles as low as 0°–20°. The variation of the horizontal wind field with height and the internal dynamics of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) are thought to be responsible for this geometry. Further, the vertical extent of draft cores is limited in all types of convection, except for deep updraft cores. About 77% of deep updraft cores have a vertical extent greater than 10 km and ∼23% of these cores reach an altitude of 16 km. The size (overpass time) of the core shows an increasing trend with altitude up to 10–12 km and then decreases. Among different types of convection, the size of core is larger for deep updraft cores and smaller for shallow updraft cores. The variation of w distribution with height is different for different convection categories. The mode (and also the mean) of the distribution shows low-level descent (below 3 km) and mid–high-level ascent in shallow and deep convection categories, while nearly uniform distribution is seen in decaying convection. Strong updrafts are seen in deep convective systems in the upper troposphere (of the order of 15–20 m s−1), followed by shallow and decaying systems, while downdrafts are generally weaker in all types of convection. The variability (within the cores and also with altitude) and the number of data points are larger in updraft cores than in downdraft cores corresponding to shallow and deep convection. Contrasting the composite w profile at Gadanki with those obtained elsewhere revealed interesting features: the absence of subsidence at higher levels, the presence of low-level subsidence, a single ascent peak in the middle troposphere, etc. Further, the magnitude of composite w derived from wind profiler measurements is larger than that obtained with other techniques.

Characteristics of inertio‐gravity waves revealed in rawinsonde data observed in Korea during 20 August to 5 September 2002

Characteristics of inertio‐gravity waves (IGWs) observed at six operational rawinsonde stations in Korea from 20 August to 5 September 2002 and their relationship with convective sources are investigated. Several types of convective systems, including mesoscale convective complexes and Typhoon Rusa, passed the Korean peninsula during the observing period. To categorize the observed waves with and without convective sources, wet and dry periods are defined at each observing site using hourly precipitation and satellite data. Although waves with extremely large values of intrinsic frequency and vertical wavelength are observed mostly in wet periods, the mean values of wave parameters for wet and dry periods are similar. Low‐frequency IGWs can originate far from and long before the observing sites, implying that it is unreasonable to correlate convective sources and observed waves at the same location and time. For better correlation of the observed waves and their sources, a three‐dimensional ray‐tracing model is used. A new wet case is defined on the basis of the occurrence of convection when and where a ray locates in mid‐to‐upper troposphere. Characteristics of the observed waves for new wet and dry cases differ significantly: the intrinsic frequency is larger but the horizontal wavelength is much smaller for wet than dry cases. Sources for wet cases are mostly convective clouds located northeast and southeast of the observing sites below 5 km. This is clearly distinguished from dry cases, where sources are located mostly in the northwest above 15 km and southeast far from the observing sites below 5 km.

Diagnostic analyses of convective events — The effect of propagating gust fronts

This paper is devoted to the testing experiment of a postprocessing tool aimed at the objective analysis of propagating gust fronts in a given convective environment. The tool is being developed to be applicable in the operational mode by utilizing NWP model outputs. The experiment was carried out on two summer convective cases which occurred in the Czech Republic. The cases were numerically simulated by the limited area NWP model LM COSMO with the horizontal resolution of 2.8 km. They represent different types of convective systems, both accompanied by objectively identifiable gust fronts and causing heavy precipitation. The event from July 2000 was characterised by the development of isolated thunderstorms. The other event from July 1998 was a long-lasting and organised convective system — a squall line. The hypothesis was that the developed postprocessing tool is capable to evaluate the role which downdraft outflows played in the decay and initiation of convective cells by interaction with convective environment and thus in prolongation of convection lifetime. The procedures of the Objective Analysis of Gust Fronts (OAGF) were applied to the thermodynamic outputs of the LM COSMO. The aim was to determine the position of gust fronts within the domain and to assess their speed of movement and the potential to initiate convection according to the properties of ambient vertical shear and stability as well as humidity conditions ahead of the respective downdraft outflows. In addition, the Radar Simulation Model (RSM) was employed to monitor the simulated convective systems in arbitrary PPI and RHI scans and to verify qualitatively the LM COSMO precipitation forecasts. The case studies has confirmed the applicability of the LM COSMO–OAGF chain and RSM, which may represent the potential for improving the operational nowcasting of hazardous convection phenomena. In both simulations, the objective gust fronts moved on into the vertical shear-favourable environment for triggering new convection. In addition to the dynamical organisation, there were also favourable stability and humidity conditions in the area of forced upward motions in the simulation of the event from July 2000.

The Use of a Modified Ebert–McBride Technique to Evaluate Mesoscale Model QPF as a Function of Convective System Morphology during IHOP 2002

Abstract The Ebert–McBride technique (EMT) is an entity-oriented method useful for quantitative precipitation verification. The EMT was modified to optimize its ability to identify contiguous rain areas (CRAs) during the 2002 International H2O Project (IHOP). This technique was then used to identify systematic sources of error as a function of observed convective system morphology in three 12-km model simulations run over the IHOP domain: Eta, the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5), and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF). The EMT was fine-tuned to optimize the pattern matching of forecasts to observations for the scales of precipitation systems observed during IHOP. To investigate several error measures provided by the EMT, a detailed morphological analysis of observed systems was performed using radar data for all CRAs identified in the IHOP domain. The modified EMT suggests that the Eta Model produced average rain rates, peak rainfall amounts, and total rain volumes that were lower than observed for almost all types of convective systems, likely because of its production of overly smoothed and low-variability quantitative precipitation forecasts. The MM5 and WRF typically produced average rain rates and peak rainfall amounts that were larger than observed in most linear convective systems. However, the rain volume for these models was too low for almost all types of convective systems, implying a sizeable underestimate in areal coverage. All three models forecast rainfall too far northwest for linear systems. The results for the WRF and MM5 are consistent with previous observations of mesoscale models run with explicit microphysics and no convective parameterization scheme, suggesting systematic problems with the prediction of mesoscale convective system cold pool dynamics.

Sulphur isotope compositions in the Åmmeberg Zn-Pb ore deposit, south-central Sweden: Genetic implications

The distribution of sulphur isotope compositions in the Ammeberg sulphide ore deposit is discussed. The δ34S values for various sulphides show a complex pattern of fluctuations between isotopic equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions. This feature as well as the observed variations in the δ34S values of galena and sphalerite are interpreted to have originated from successive pulses of sulphide-forming solutions. On the basis of geological field criteria and sulphur isotope data, the Ammeberg deposit is considered to be a typical distal mineralization, belonging to the volcanic-exhalative group of ore deposits. The banded structure of the ore, the spatial separation of Pb and Zn and the presence of discrete, persistant ore layers probably relate to the type of convective system that created the mineral-forming solutions and to the various processes taking place when the brines were expelled onto the sea floor.

The Momentum Budget and Temporal Evolution of a Mesoscale Convective System

Abstract The momentum budget and temporal evolution of a convective mesosystem, originally investigated by Sanders and Paine (1975), are examined. It is found that 1) alternative analyses of the data do not substantially change the conclusions reached in the previous paper, 2) stresses due to cumulus-scale eddies produce forces which are as large as the horizontal pressure-gradient force, in the direction normal to the storm line, and 3) liquid water aloft must be taken into account in the hydrostatic computation of the pressure field. The mesoscale circulation increases substantially during the 4 h observation period, suggesting a time evolution which may be characteristic of this type of convective system.