A Numerical Study of Parameters Controlling Tornado Longevity and Intensity Within Supercells

在过去几年中，在确定决定雷暴结构的环境气象参数方面取得了很大进展。特别是，一个重要的发现是与通常产生龙卷风的风暴（称为超级单体风暴）高度相关的因素。尽管大多数主要的龙卷风都是在超级单体雷暴中产生的，但并不是所有的超级单体都能产生龙卷风，而且龙卷风本身的严重程度也很广。在这项研究中，首席研究员将调查控制龙卷风强度和寿命的大规模环境条件。计算能力和数值技术的进步使超级单体/龙卷风系统的数值模拟参数研究成为可能。目标是通过系统地改变环境风切变和浮力来模拟观测到的龙卷风风暴频谱。这项研究的成功完成将增加对龙卷风的了解，并可能为业务气象学家提供更好的信息来预测严重的龙卷风事件。＊＊＊

9318914 Wicker Over the past several years much progress has been made in determining the environmental meteorological parameters that determine the structure of thunderstorms. In particular, an important discovery is the factors that are highly correlated with the storms (know as supercell storms) that typically produce tornadoes. Even though most major tornadoes are spawned within supercell thunderstorms, not all supercells produce tornadoes and the tornadoes themselves span a broad spectrum of severity. In this research the Principal Investigator will investigate the large scale environmental conditions that control the intensity and longevity of tornadoes. Advances in computational power and numerical techniques permit a numerical modeling parameter study of supercell/tornado systems. The goal is to simulate the observed spectrum of tornadic storms by systematically varying the environmental wind shear and buoyancy. Successful completion of this research will increase understanding of tornadoes and potentially provide operational meteorologists with better information for predicting severe tornadic events. ***