The Integrated Effect of Condensation in Numerical Simulations of Extratropical Cyclogenesis

Davis, Christopher A.; Stoelinga, Mark T.; Kuo, Ying‐Hwa

doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1993)121<2309:tieoci>2.0.co;2

Cited by 164 publications

(158 citation statements)

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“…In the mature stage of a cyclone, the three anomalies can become vertically aligned to form a so-called PV towera column of anomalously high PV values spanning the troposphere and inducing a strong cyclonic circulation (Hoskins 1990;Rossa et al 2000;Badger and Hoskins 2001). The diabatically produced low-level PV anomaly can significantly enhance the low-level circulation in cyclones and thereby contribute to their intensification (Davis and Emanuel 1991;Stoelinga 1996). It is also known that intense diabatic heating and low-level PV production in extratropical cyclones occurs in the warm conveyor belt (WCB; e.g., Wernli and Davies 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Warm Conveyor Belts for the Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones in Northern Hemisphere Winter

Binder

Boettcher

Joos

et al. 2016

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

114

135

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The role of warm conveyor belts (WCBs) and their associated positive low-level potential vorticity (PV) anomalies are investigated for extratropical cyclones in Northern Hemisphere winter, using ERA-Interim and composite techniques. The Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.68 implies a moderate to strong correlation between cyclone intensification and WCB strength. Hereby, cyclone intensification is quantified by the normalized maximum 24-h central sea level pressure deepening and WCB strength by the WCB air mass associated with the cyclone's 24-h period of strongest deepening. Explosively intensifying cyclones typically have strong WCBs and pronounced WCB-related PV production in the cyclone center; they are associated with a WCB of type W2, which ascends close to the cyclone center. Cyclones with similar WCB strength but weak intensification are either diabatic Rossby waves, which do not interact with an upper-level disturbance, or cyclones where much of the WCB-related PV production occurs far from the cyclone center and thereby does not contribute strongly to cyclone deepening (WCB of type W1, which ascends mainly along the cold front). The category of explosively intensifying cyclones with weak WCBs is inhomogeneous but often characterized by a very low tropopause or latent heating independent of WCBs. These findings reveal that (i) diabatic PV production in WCBs is essential for the intensification of many explosive cyclones, (ii) the importance of WCBs for cyclone development strongly depends on the location of the PV production relative to the cyclone center, and (iii) a minority of explosive cyclones is not associated with WCBs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Warm Conveyor Belts for the Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones in Northern Hemisphere Winter

Binder

Boettcher

Joos

et al. 2016

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

114

135

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“…This diabatic PV modification can contribute strongly to the intensification of a cyclone (e.g. Kuo et al, 1991;Davis et al, 1993;Rossa et al, 2000). PV is destroyed by diabatic processes above the level of maximum latent heating, which leads to negative PV anomalies in the upper tropospheric WCB outflow region (Wernli, 1997;Pomroy and Thorpe, 2000;Grams et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Airborne lidar observations in the inflow region of a warm conveyor belt

Schäfler

Dörnbrack

Wernli

et al. 2011

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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). It is noteworthy that this substantial bias occurs in a potentially dynamically highly relevant air mass that will be subsequently lifted within a WCB to the upper troposphere. A Lagrangian moisture source diagnostic reveals that these large moisture deviations occur within air masses that, according to the ECMWF analyses, are coherently transported from the western Mediterranean towards Spain and experience intense moisture uptake over the Ebro valley. It is suggested that inaccuracies in surface evapotranspiration, horizontal moisture advection, and turbulent vertical transport of moisture in the atmospheric boundary layer potentially contribute to the erroneous lowtropospheric humidity in the inflow region of this particular summertime WCB over Spain in the ECMWF analyses.

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“…It is well known that latent heating can play a significant role in the evolution of ETCs (e.g., Manabe 1956;Sanders and Gyakum 1980;Davis et al 1993;Zhu and Newell 1994;Stoelinga 1996;Pomroy and Thorpe 2000) though this can vary substantially on a case-to-case basis (e.g., Kuo and Low-Nam 1990;Smith 2000;Wernli et al 2002;Dacre and Gray 2009;Fink et al 2012;Dearden et al 2016). It has been shown that latent heating can significantly influence the evolution and deepening of some of the most damaging storms (e.g., Ulbrich et al 2001;Liberato et al 2011) and has been shown to influence frontal structure and propagation around ETCs (see Posselt and Martin 2004;Reeves and Lackmann 2004).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cyclonic PV anomalies below the heating maxima can act to enhance the low level circulation (Plant et al 2003) and strengthen flow in and downstream of the warm conveyor belt (WCB, Grams et al 2011), a band of ascending moist air responsible for much precipitation in ETCs. Anticyclonic PV generation above the heating maxima can help to slow the movement of the upper level PV maxima (the trough), thus maintaining the vertical tilt of the ETC (Stoelinga 1996), and can also enhance downstream ridging (Davis et al 1993). Capturing both the location and magnitude of diabatic processes is therefore necessary to realistically reproduce the evolution of the flow around ETCs and their consequent interaction with the background environment and flow (Pomroy and Thorpe 2000;Massacand et al 2001;Dirren et al 2003;Methven 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Using satellite and reanalysis data to evaluate the representation of latent heating in extratropical cyclones in a climate model

et al. 2016

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exhibit biases in cloud structure, with more clouds at lower altitudes than those observed in ISCCP in the warm conveyor belt region. As a result, latent heat release in ERAI is concentrated at lower altitudes. CloudSat indicates that much precipitation may be produced at too low an altitude in both HiGEM and ERAI, particularly ERAI, and neither capture observed variability in precipitation intensity. The potential vorticity structure in composite extratropical cyclones in HiGEM and ERAI is also compared. A more pronounced tropopause ridge evolves in HiGEM on the leading edge of the composite as compared to ERAI. One future area of research to be addressed is what impact these biases in the representation of latent heating have on climate projections produced by HiGEM. The biases found in ERAI indicate caution is required when using reanalyses to study cloud features and precipitation processes in extratropical cyclones or using reanalysis to evaluate climate models' ability to represent their structure.

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The Integrated Effect of Condensation in Numerical Simulations of Extratropical Cyclogenesis

Cited by 164 publications

References 0 publications

The Role of Warm Conveyor Belts for the Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones in Northern Hemisphere Winter

The Role of Warm Conveyor Belts for the Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones in Northern Hemisphere Winter

Airborne lidar observations in the inflow region of a warm conveyor belt

Using satellite and reanalysis data to evaluate the representation of latent heating in extratropical cyclones in a climate model

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