Vertical Wind Variability Observed by VHF Radar in the Lee of the Colorado Rockies

Abstract

During March 1981 the Sunset and Platteville VHF clear-air radars located in Colorado to the east of the continental divide observed vertical winds continuously over a three-week period. The vertical winds at these locations contain fluctuations with periods from a few minutes to several hours and with magnitudes ranging up to a few meters per second. The Sunset radar, which is located in the foothills, observed systematically larger vertical velocities than the vertical velocities observed by the Platteville radar, which is located on the plains, some 60 km to the east. Although periods of enhanced vertical wind activity were observed to occur at the same time at both sites, attempts to correlate vertical wind structures over the two sites in detail were generally not successful. The magnitude of vertical velocity fluctuations seen by both radars show large day-to-day variations with ?active? periods alternating with ?quiet? periods. An examination of upper level maps reveals that the occurrence of active and quiet periods are linked to the large-scale wind field. During the March experiment the magnitude of the vertical velocity variance was well correlated with the 500 mb zonal (west) wind.