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Updrafts in wintertime cloud systems over mountainous regions can be described as fixed, mechanically driven by the terrain under a given ambient wind and stability profile (i.e., vertically propagating gravity waves), and transient, related to vertical wind shear and conditional instability within passing weather systems. This analysis quantifies the magnitude of fixed and transient updraft structures over the Payette River Basin sampled during the Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime Clouds: the Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE). Vertical motions were retrieved from Wyoming Cloud Radar measurements of radial velocity using the algorithm presented in Part 1. Transient circulations were removed and fixed orographic circulations were quantified by averaging vertical circulations along repeated cross sections over the same terrain during the campaign. Fixed orographic vertical circulations had magnitudes of 0.3-0.5 m s-1. These fixed vertical circulations comprised a background circulation in which transient circulations were embedded. Transient vertical circulations are shown to be associated with transient wave motions, cloud top generating cells, convection, and turbulence. Representative transient vertical circulations are illustrated and data from rawinsondes over the Payette River Basin are used to infer the relationship of the vertical circulations to shear and instability. Maximum updrafts are shown to exceed 5 m s 1 within Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, 4 m s-1 associated with transient gravity waves, 3 m s-1 in generating cells, 6 m s-1 in elevated convection, 4 m s-1 in surface-based deep convection, 5 m s-1 in boundary layer turbulence, and 9 m s-1 in shear-induced turbulence. 

Vertical motions over the complex terrain of Idaho’s Payette River Basin were observed by the Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) during 23 flights of the Wyoming King Air during the SNOWIE field campaign. The WCR measured radial velocity, V_r, which includes the reflectivity-weighted terminal velocity of hydrometeors (V_t), vertical air velocity (w), horizontal wind contributions as a result of aircraft attitude deviations, and aircraft motion. Aircraft motion was removed through standard processing. To retrieve vertical radial velocity (W), V_r was corrected using rawinsonde data and aircraft attitude measurements. w was then calculated by subtracting the mean W, (W ̅), at a given height along a flight leg long enough for W ̅ to equal the mean reflectivity weighted terminal velocity, (V_t ) ̅, at that height. The accuracy of the w and (V_t ) ̅ retrievals were dependent on satisfying assumptions along a given flight leg that the winds at a given altitude above/below the aircraft did not vary, the vertical air motions at a given altitude sum to 0 m s-1, and (V_t ) ̅ at a given altitude did not vary. The uncertainty in the w retrieval associated with each assumption is evaluated. Case studies and a project wide summary show that this methodology can provide estimates of w that closely match gust probe measurements of w at the aircraft level. Flight legs with little variation in equivalent reflectivity factor at a given height and large horizontal echo extent were associated with the least retrieval uncertainty. The greatest uncertainty occurred in regions with isolated convective turrets or at altitudes where split cloud layers were present.