Diana L. Bartels

The Bow Echo and MCV Experiment: Observations and Opportunities

The Bow Echo and Mesoscale Convective Vortex Experiment (BAMEX) is a research investigation using highly mobile platforms to examine the life cycles of mesoscale convective systems. It represents a combination of two related investigations to study (a) bow echoes, principally those that produce damaging surface winds and last at least 4 h, and (b) larger convective systems that produce long-lived mesoscale convective vortices (MCVs). The field phase of BAMEX utilized three instrumented research aircraft and an array of mobile ground-based instruments. Two long-range turboprop aircraft were equipped with pseudo-dual-Doppler radar capability, the third aircraft was a jet equipped with dropsondes. The aircraft documented the environmental structure of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), observed the kinematic and thermodynamic structure of the convective line and stratiform regions (where rear-inflow jets and MCVs reside), and captured the structure of mature MCVs. The ground-based instruments augmented sou...

Midlevel Cyclonic Vortices Generated by Mesoseale Convective Systems

Abstract Despite the large number of convective systems that occur over the central United States every year, there are typically only a few well-defined, midlevel vortices apparent in satellite imagery after the overlying anvil debris from some convective complexes has dissipated or advected away. A climatology of mesoscale convectively generated vortex (MCV) events for 1981-1988 is presented and the synoptic setting in which the circulation becomes apparent is discussed. Proximity sounding data from numerous cases are used to examine features of the kinematic and thermodynamic setting of MCVs at various lifelycle stages defined by satellite imagery. Features ofthe large-scale environment that appear conducive to the formation and longevity of MCVS include weak flow, weak vertical shear, weak background relative vorticity, and intense horizontal and vertical moisture gradients. The rapid mesovortex generation observed can be explained by the stretching term of the vorticity equation. Most MCVs emerge fro...

An overview of the Stratospheric‐Tropospheric Experiment: Radiation, Aerosols, and Ozone (STERAO)‐Deep Convection experiment with results for the July 10, 1996 storm

The Stratospheric-Tropospheric Experiment: Radiation, Aerosols and Ozone (STERAO)-Deep Convection Field Project with closely coordinated chemical, dynamical, electrical, and microphysical observations was conducted in northeastern Colorado during June and July of 1996 to investigate the production of NOx by lightning, the transport and redistribution of chemical species in the troposphere by thunderstorms, and the temporal evolution of intracloud and cloud-to-ground lightning for evolving storms on the Colorado high plains. Major observations were airborne chemical measurements in the boundary layer, middle and upper troposphere, and thunderstorm anvils; airborne and ground-based Doppler radar measurements; measurement of both intracloud (IC) and cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flash rates and locations; and multiparameter radar and in situ observations of microphysical structure. Cloud and mesoscale models are being used to synthesize and extend the observations. Herein we present an overview of the project and selected results for an isolated, severe storm that occurred on July 10. Time histories of reflectivity structure, IC and CG lightning flash rates, and chemical measurements in the boundary layer and in the anvil are presented showing large spatial and temporal variations. The observations for one period of time suggest that limited mixing of environmental air into the updraft core occurred during transport from cloud base to the anvil adjacent to the storm core. We deduce that the most likely contribution of lightning to the total NOx observed in the anvil is 60–90% with a minimum of 45%. For the July 10 storm the NOx produced by lightning was almost exclusively from IC flashes with a ratio of IC to total flashes >0.95 throughout most of the storms lifetime. It is argued that in this storm and probably others, IC flashes can be major contributors to NOx production. Superposition of VHF lightning source locations on Doppler retrieved air motion fields for one 5 min time period shows that lightning activity occurred primarily in moderate updrafts and weak downdrafts with little excursion into the main downdraft. This may have important implications for the vertical redistribution of NOx resulting from lightning production, if found to be true at other times and in other storms.

Numerical simulations of the July 10 Stratospheric-Tropospheric Experiment: Radiation, Aerosols, and Ozone/Deep Convection Experiment convective system: Kinematics and transport

The observed July 10, 1996, Stratospheric-Tropospheric Experiment: Radiation, Aerosols, and Ozone (STERAO) convective system is broadly reproduced in a nonhydrostatic cloud model simulation using an idealized horizontally homogeneous sounding and no terrain. System evolution from a multicellular line to a supercell, along with line orientation, anvil structure, horizontal wind fields, depth of convection, and derived radar reflectivity, compares well with observations. Simulated passive tracer transport of CO and ozone generally agrees with aircraft measurements and shows a small amount of entrainment of environmental air in the updrafts, and a small amount of dilution occurring with transport downwind in the anvil; the entrainment and dilution are less pronounced in the supercell stage. The horizontally integrated vertical flux divergence for CO in the simulation shows a net gain at almost all levels above 8 km mean sea level (msl). The rate of increase of CO mass above 8 km varies significantly in time, with a peak at early times, followed by a decline and minimum as the system transitions to a supercell and a steady increase as the supercell matures. Trajectory analyses show that updrafts in the simulation are ingesting air from a layer spanning from 2 km to 3.5 km msl (from 0.5 to 2km above the surface). The residence times for parcels in the updraft varies from just under 10 min to more than 20 min, with most parcels taking approximately 10 min to ascend to the anvil.

The Accuracy of Vertical Air Velocities from Doppler Radar Data

Abstract Eight methods of calculating vertical air velocity in a column are compared. Each method requires some or all of the following data: horizontal divergence, vertical precipitation velocity, hydrometeor terminal fall speed, and vertical air velocity boundary conditions. Some or all of these quantities are commonly deduced or specified by a researcher during the analysis of Doppler radar data. The responses of the methods to different magnitudes and behaviors of errors in the input data are examined with a Monte Carlo method. The experiments are conducted with both random and systematic errors. Two idealized kinds of systematic errors are considered: bias error (a constant error through the column) and trend error (an error of constant magnitude that changes sign at the midpoint of the mass of the column). The performances of the methods are mapped over error space. A researcher, knowing approximately the characteristics of the errors of a particular set of Doppler radar data, can use the results of...

A Multiwinter Analysis of Channeled Flow through a Prominent Gap along the Northern California Coast during CALJET and PACJET

Abstract Experimental observations from coastal and island wind profilers, aircraft, and other sensors deployed during the California Land-falling Jets Experiment of 1997/98 and the Pacific Land-falling Jets Experiment of 2000/01–2003/04 were combined with observations from operational networks to document the regular occurrence and characteristic structure of shallow (∼400–500 m deep), cold airstreams flowing westward through California’s Petaluma Gap from the Central Valley to the coast during the winter months. The Petaluma Gap, which is the only major air shed outlet from the Central Valley, is ∼35–50 km wide and has walls extending, at most, a modest 600–900 m above the valley floor. Based on this geometry, together with winter meteorological conditions typical of the region (e.g., cold air pooled in the Central Valley and approaching extratropical cyclones), this gap is predisposed to generating westward-directed ageostrophic flows driven by along-gap pressure differences. Two case studies and a fiv...

Mesoscale moisture transport by the low-level jet during the IHOP field experiment

Abstract Previous studies of the low-level jet (LLJ) over the central Great Plains of the United States have been unable to determine the role that mesoscale and smaller circulations play in the transport of moisture. To address this issue, two aircraft missions during the International H2O Project (IHOP_2002) were designed to observe closely a well-developed LLJ over the Great Plains (primarily Oklahoma and Kansas) with multiple observation platforms. In addition to standard operational platforms (most important, radiosondes and profilers) to provide the large-scale setting, dropsondes released from the aircraft at 55-km intervals and a pair of onboard lidar instruments—High Resolution Doppler Lidar (HRDL) for wind and differential absorption lidar (DIAL) for moisture—observed the moisture transport in the LLJ at greater resolution. Using these observations, the authors describe the multiscalar structure of the LLJ and then focus attention on the bulk properties and effects of scales of motion by computi...