PNNL

Abstract

Dropsonde observations from the Bow-echo and Mesoscale convective vortex EXperiment (BAMEX) are used to document the spatio-temporal variability of temperature, moisture and wind within mesoscale convective systems (MCSs). Onion type sounding structures are found throughout the stratiform region of MCSs but the temperature and moisture variability is large. Composite soundings were constructed and statistics of thermodynamic variability were generated within each sub-region of the MCS. The calculated air vertical velocity helped identify subsaturated downdrafts. We found that lapse rates within the cold pool varied markedly throughout the MCS. Layered wet bulb potential temperature profiles seem to indicate that air within the lowest several km comes from a variety of source regions. We also found that lapse rate transitions across the 0 C level were more common than isothermal, melting layers. We discuss the implications these findings have and how they can be used to validate future high resolution numerical simulations of MCSs.