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A Composite Diagnosis of Synoptic-Scale Extratropical Cyclone Development over the United States

Author
Rolfson, Donald M.
Published
Jun. 1996.
Physical Description
1 electronic document
Additional Creators
Smith, Phillip J.
Online Version

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Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
Free-to-read Unrestricted online access
Summary
This paper presents a composite diagnosis of synoptic-scale forcing mechanisms associated with extratropical cyclone evolution. Drawn from 12 cyclone cases that occurred over the continental United States during the cool season months, the diagnosis provides a 'climatology' of development mechanisms for difference categories of cyclone evolution ranging from cyclone weakening through three stages of cyclone intensification. Computational results were obtained using an 'extended' form of the Zwack-Okossi equation applied to routine upper-air and surface data analyzed on a 230 km x 230 km grid. Results show that cyclonic vorticity advection, which maximizes in the upper troposphere, was the primary contributor to cyclone development regardless of the stage of development. A second consistent contributor to development was latent heat release. Horizontal temperature advection, often acknowledged as a development mechanism, was found to contribute to development only during more intense stages. During weakening and weaker development stages, temperature advection opposed development, as the warm-air advection invariably found at upper levels was dominated by cold air advection in the lower half of the troposphere. In the more intense stages, development was moderated by dry-adiabatic cooling associated with the ascending vertical motions.
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
Note
Document ID: 19970028746.
Accession ID: 97N27472.
NAS 1.26:205251.
NASA-CR-205251.
Monthly Weather Review; Volume 124; 1084-1099.
Terms of Use and Reproduction
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright.
View MARC record | catkey: 15647317