Collaborative Research: Impact of Convectively-Generated Gravity Waves on Mesoscale Convective Systems

合作研究：对流产生的重力波对中尺度对流系统的影响

基本信息

批准号：
1636663
负责人：
Russ Schumacher
金额：
$ 29.46万
依托单位：
Colorado State University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2016-11-01 至 2021-10-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1636663&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Impact Convectively Generated

项目摘要

Gravity waves, generated by thunderstorms, are commonly associated with nighttime thunderstorm clusters called "Mesoscale Convective Systems" (MCSs); storm systems that are frequent producers of heavy rainfall and damaging winds. These gravity waves modify both the environment surrounding the MCS and its internal circulation. Considering that even small changes in the surrounding environment or internal circulation have been shown to affect MCS development, improved understanding of these wave processes is important to successful MCS prediction. Gravity waves have been linked to storm intensification and potential severe weather, so improved understanding of these features would lead to improved immediate, short-term forecasts of severe weather risks. This research supports an early career female investigator and one graduate student, and also involves a collaboration between a university and private industry involved in atmospheric research. Knowledge of the MCS gravity wave generation-feedback process, including the influence of microphysical perturbations on this process, will lead to better understanding of MCS development, as well as the sensitivity of convection to these environmental changes. Understanding the extent to which changes in the environment due to convectively generated gravity waves need to be captured to correctly simulate MCSs is a significant step to understanding MCS predictability. Furthermore, knowledge of the gravity wave characteristics produced by an MCS allows inferences to be made about the phase, depth, and intensity of the latent heating profile without direct microphysical observations that can be resource-intensive to obtain. Understanding of the influence of microphysical perturbations upon the generation and impacts of gravity waves will be useful in microphysical parameterization development, leading to better numerical model prediction of convection in general. Model simulations will be compared against actual data from the Plains Elevated Convection at Night (PECAN) Field Campaign.

由雷暴产生的重力波通常与称为“中尺度对流系统”的夜间雷暴簇有关（MCSS）；风暴系统经常是大降雨和破坏风的生产商。这些重力波修改了MCS周围的环境及其内部循环。考虑到周围环境或内部循环的微小变化也已被证明会影响MCS的发展，对这些波过程的了解对成功的MCS预测也很重要。重力波与暴风雨的强化和潜在的恶劣天气有关，因此对这些特征的理解有所提高将导致立即改善严重天气风险的短期预测。这项研究支持了一名早期的职业女研究员和一名研究生，还涉及参与大气研究的大学和私营企业之间的合作。了解MCS重力波生成反馈过程，包括微物理扰动对此过程的影响，将使人们更好地了解MCS的发展，以及对流对这些环境变化的敏感性。了解需要捕获对对流产生的重力波而导致的环境变化以正确模拟MCSS的程度是理解MCS可预测性的重要步骤。此外，对MC产生的重力特征的了解可以推断出潜在热热曲线的相位，深度和强度，而无需直接的微物理观测值，这些观察值可以是资源密集的。了解微物理扰动对重力波的产生和影响的影响将在微物理参数化的发展中有用，从而导致对流的数值模型更好。将将模型模拟与平原上夜间（Pecan）现场活动的对流提升的实际数据进行比较。