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Abstract Supercell thunderstorms develop low-level rotation via tilting of environmental horizontal vorticity (ωh) by the updraft. This rotation induces dynamic lifting that can stretch near-surface vertical vorticity into a tornado. Low-level updraft rotation is generally thought to scale with 0–500 m storm-relative helicity (SRH): the combination of storm-relative flow, |SRF|, |ωh|, and cosϕ(whereϕis the angle betweenSRFandωh). It is unclear how much influence each component of SRH has in intensifying the low-level mesocyclone. This study surveys these three components using self-organizing maps (SOMs) to distill 15 906 proximity soundings for observed right-moving supercells. Statistical analyses reveal the component most highly correlated to SRH and to streamwise vorticity (ωs) in the observed profiles is |ωh|. Furthermore, |ωh| and |SRF| are themselves highly correlated due to their shared dependence on the hodograph length. The representative profiles produced by the SOMs were combined with a common thermodynamic profile to initialize quasi-realistic supercells in a cloud model. The simulations reveal that, across a range of real-world profiles, intense low-level mesocyclones are most closely linked toωhandSRF, while the angle between them appears to be mostly inconsequential. Significance StatementAbout three-fourths of all tornadoes are produced by rotating thunderstorms (supercells). When the part of the storm near cloud base (approximately 1 km above the ground) rotates more strongly, the chance of a tornado dramatically increases. The goal of this study is to identify the simplest characteristic(s) of the environmental wind profile that can be used to forecast the likelihood of strong cloud-base rotation. This study concludes that the most important ingredients for storm rotation are the magnitudes of the horizontal vertical wind shear between the surface and 500 m and the storm inflow wind, irrespective of their relative directions. This finding may lead to improved operational identification of environments favoring tornado formation.
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Low-level Updraft Intensification in Response to Environmental Wind Profiles
Abstract Supercell storms can develop a “dynamical response” whereby upward accelerations in the lower troposphere amplify as a result of rotationally induced pressure falls aloft. These upward accelerations likely modulate a supercell’s ability to stretch near-surface vertical vorticity to achieve tornadogenesis. This study quantifies such a dynamical response as a function of environmental wind profiles commonly found near supercells. Self-organizing maps (SOMs) were used to identify recurring low-level wind profile patterns from 20,194 model-analyzed, near-supercell soundings. The SOM nodes with larger 0–500 m storm-relative helicity (SRH) and streamwise vorticity ( ω s ) corresponded to higher observed tornado probabilities. The distilled wind profiles from the SOMs were used to initialize idealized numerical simulations of updrafts. In environments with large 0–500 m SRH and large ω s , a rotationally induced pressure deficit, increased dynamic lifting, and a strengthened updraft resulted. The resulting upward-directed accelerations were an order of magnitude stronger than typical buoyant accelerations. At 500 m AGL, this dynamical response increased the vertical velocity by up to 25 m s –1 , vertical vorticity by up to 0.2 s –1 , and pressure deficit by up to 5 hPa. This response specifically augments the near-ground updraft (the midlevel updraft properties are almost identical across the simulations). However, dynamical responses only occurred in environments where 0–500 m SRH and ω s exceeded 110 m 2 s –2 and 0.015 s –1 , respectively. The presence vs. absence of this dynamical response may explain why environments with higher 0–500 m SRH and ω s correspond to greater tornado probabilities.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1748715
- PAR ID:
- 10317085
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- ISSN:
- 0022-4928
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Observed supercell updrafts consistently produce the fastest mid- to upper-tropospheric vertical velocities among all modes of convection. Two hypotheses for this feature are investigated. In the dynamic hypothesis, upward, largely rotationally driven pressure gradient accelerations enhance supercell updrafts relative to other forms of convection. In the thermodynamic hypothesis, supercell updrafts have more low-level inflow than ordinary updrafts because of the large vertical wind shear in supercell environments. This large inflow makes supercell updrafts wider than that of ordinary convection and less susceptible to the deleterious effects of entrainment-driven updraft core dilution on buoyancy. These hypotheses are tested using a large suite of idealized supercell simulations, wherein vertical shear, CAPE, and moisture are systematically varied. Consistent with the thermodynamic hypothesis, storms with the largest storm-relative flow have larger inflow, are wider, have larger buoyancy, and have faster updrafts. Analyses of the vertical momentum forcing along trajectories shows that maximum vertical velocities are often enhanced by dynamic pressure accelerations, but this enhancement is accompanied by larger downward buoyant pressure accelerations than in ordinary convection. Integrated buoyancy along parcel paths is therefore a strong constraint on maximum updraft speeds. Thus, through a combination of processes consistent with the dynamic and thermodynamic hypotheses, supercell updrafts are able to realize a larger percentage of CAPE than ordinary updrafts.more » « less
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null (Ed.)Abstract The relationship between storm-relative helicity (SRH) and streamwise vorticity ωs is frequently invoked to explain the often robust connections between effective inflow layer (EIL) SRH and various supercell updraft properties. However, the definition of SRH also contains storm-relative (SR) flow, and the separate influences of SR flow and ωs on updraft dynamics are therefore convolved when SRH is used as a diagnostic tool. To clarify this issue, proximity soundings and numerical experiments are used to disentangle the separate influences of EIL SR flow and ωs on supercell updraft characteristics. Our results suggest that the magnitude of EIL ωs has little influence on whether supercellular storm mode occurs. Rather, the transition from nonsupercellular to supercellular storm mode is largely modulated by the magnitude of EIL SR flow. Furthermore, many updraft attributes such as updraft width, maximum vertical velocity, vertical mass flux at all levels, and maximum vertical vorticity at all levels are largely determined by EIL SR flow. For a constant EIL SR flow, storms with large EIL ωs have stronger low-level net rotation and vertical velocities, which affirms previously established connections between ωs and tornadogenesis. EIL ωs also influences storms’ precipitation and cold-pool patterns. Vertical nonlinear dynamic pressure acceleration (NLDPA) is larger at low levels when EIL ωs is large, but differences in NLDPA aloft become uncorrelated with EIL ωs because storms’ midlevel dynamic pressure perturbations are substantially influenced by the tilting of midlevel vorticity. Our results emphasize the importance of considering EIL SR flow in addition to EIL SRH in the research and forecasting of supercell properties.more » « less
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null (Ed.)Abstract In supercell environments, previous authors have shown strong connections between the vertical wind shear magnitude, updraft width, and entrainment. Based on these results, it is hypothesized that the influences of entrainment-driven dilution on buoyancy and maximum updraft vertical velocity w in supercell environments are a predictable function of the vertical wind shear profile. It is also hypothesized that the influences of pressure perturbation forces on maximum updraft w are small because of a nearly complete offset between upward dynamic pressure forces and downward buoyant pressure forces. To address these hypotheses, we derive a formula for the maximum updraft w that incorporates the effects of entrainment-driven dilution on buoyancy but neglects pressure gradient forces. Solutions to this formula are compared with output from previous numerical simulations. This formula substantially improves predictions of maximum updraft w over past CAPE-derived formulas for maximum updraft w , which supports the first hypothesis. Furthermore, integrated vertical accelerations along trajectories show substantial offsets between dynamic and buoyant pressure forces, supporting the second hypothesis. It is argued that the new formula should be used in addition to CAPE-derived measures for w in forecast and research applications when accurate diagnosis of updraft speed is required.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-20-0354.1
