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

雷暴产生的重力波通常与夜间的雷暴团有关，这些雷暴团被称为中尺度对流系统(MCSs)；MCSs是经常产生暴雨和破坏性大风的风暴系统。这些重力波改变了MCS周围的环境和它的内部环流。考虑到即使周围环境或内部环流的微小变化也会影响MCS的发展，对这些波动过程的更好的理解对于成功的MCS预报是很重要的。重力波与风暴加剧和潜在的恶劣天气有关，因此对这些特征的更好理解将有助于改进对恶劣天气风险的即时、短期预报。这项研究支持一名早期职业女性研究员和一名研究生，还涉及一所大学和参与大气研究的私营企业之间的合作。对MCS重力波产生-反馈过程的了解，包括微物理扰动对这一过程的影响，将有助于更好地理解MCS的发展，以及对流对这些环境变化的敏感性。理解对流产生的重力波引起的环境变化需要在多大程度上被捕捉才能正确模拟MCS，这是理解MCS可预测性的重要一步。此外，通过对MCS产生的重力波特征的了解，可以对潜热廓线的相位、深度和强度做出推断，而不需要进行直接的微物理观测，这可能是资源密集型的。了解微物理扰动对重力波产生和影响的影响将有助于微物理参数化的发展，从而更好地对对流进行一般的数值模式预测。模型模拟将与平原夜间高空对流(山核桃)现场活动的实际数据进行比较。

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.