On Calculating the Buoyancy of Cores in a Convective Boundary Layer

Abstract

Aircraft measurements of vertical air motions are used in a process of conditional sampling to select updraft and downdraft cores during a period of strong lake-effect convection. Corresponding measurements of temperature and moisture are used to calculate the buoyancies of the cores and to evaluate the dependence of the calculated buoyancy on the horizontal extent of core environment used in the calculations. Results suggest that calculated buoyancies are relatively insensitive to the definition of core environment.