Premium
Upright Convection in Extratropical Cyclones: A Survey Using Ground‐Based Radar Data Over the United States
Author(s) -
Jeyaratnam Jeyavinoth,
Booth James F.,
Naud Catherine M.,
Luo Z. Johnny,
Homeyer Cameron R.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl086620
Subject(s) - extratropical cyclone , convection , cyclone (programming language) , climatology , precipitation , meteorology , storm , atmospheric sciences , rainband , environmental science , front (military) , geology , convective storm detection , tropical cyclone , geography , field programmable gate array , computer science , computer hardware
Upright convection can impact extratropical cyclone (ETC) precipitation and dynamics differently than isentropic ascent, but how often it occurs and how much it contributes to total precipitation within an ETC have not been systematically documented in previous literature. Herein, convection in ETCs is analyzed using ground‐based radar observations over the Eastern United States. Convection occupies 1%–5% of the precipitating region and constitutes 1%–15% of total cyclone precipitation. Furthermore, the location of convective activity occurs preferentially in the warm sector early in a cyclone's life cycle, and then as the storm evolves, more convection occurs along and behind the cold front. The precipitation rates in regions with convection are more likely to be stronger than those in other precipitating regions of the cyclone. However, the cyclones with the largest area‐average precipitation rates include only a small contribution from convection.