The Evolution of the Airflow in Cumulus and Cumulus Congestus in a Low Shear High Stability Environment

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This proposal requests support to analyze observations obtained during the Convection and Precipitation/Electrification Experiment (CaPE) conducted in central Florida during the summer of 1992. Simultaneous traverses through convective clouds by two similarly equipped King Airs are the focus of the proposed work. Emphasis will be on the evolution of the kinematic fields within those cumuli that were sampled with more than a dozen passes during their life cycle. The two-aircraft pattern will provide observations of the basic characteristics of the near-environment, visible cloud, updraft and downdraft, and the horizontal flow in and at the edges of these features. Vertical mass flux and momentum transport as a function of life cycle will be estimated for several of the better observed cases. The analyses have the potential to be the bench-mark for the kinematic structure of moist convection in an environment characterized by low shear and high convective available potential energy.