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Initiation of convection over the Black Forest mountains during COPS IOP15a
Author(s) -
Bennett Lindsay J.,
Blyth Alan M.,
Burton Ralph R.,
Gadian Alan M.,
Weckwerth Tammy M.,
Behrendt Andreas,
Di Girolamo Paolo,
Dorninger Manfred,
Lock SarahJane,
Smith Victoria H.,
Mobbs Stephen D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.760
Subject(s) - convection , weather research and forecasting model , precipitation , climatology , geology , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , deep convection , environmental science , geography
Abstract Doppler‐On‐Wheels radar observations made during the Convective and Orographically‐induced Precipitation Study (COPS) on 12 August 2007 showed that precipitating clouds only developed between the north–south orientated Murg and Nagold Valleys of the northern Black Forest. The clouds produced moderate precipitation. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model run at 700 m horizontal resolution in the inner domain was able to simulate the location of the precipitation. Insight is therefore gained into the physical mechanisms responsible for the initiation and development of the convection. Convergence lines resulting from thermally driven flows constrained the initial location of the convection within warm and moist cores produced by heating on elevated surfaces. The heaviest precipitation was later produced by secondary convection, which was initiated within the cores at the boundary between cold‐pool outflows and thermal flows. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society