Numerical Simulation of an Intense Squall Line during 10–11 June 1985 PRE-STORM. Part I: Model Verification

Abstract

A 24-h nested-grid simulation of an intense squall line during the 1985 PRE-STORM experiment is presented using an improved version of the Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research three-dimensional mesoscale model. Although the model is initialized at 1200 UTC 10 June 1985 with conventional meteorological observations, it reproduces remarkably well many observed meso-? scale features that are analyzed from the high-resolution network data. These include 1) the generation of two areas of deep convection at the model initial time; 2) the timing of the initiation of the squall line along a surface front 9 h into the model integration; 3) the development of several convective bands at 2100 UTC; 4) the rapid intensification and rapid dissipation processes of the squall line as it entered and moved out of the network, respectively; 5) the generation of a presquall mesolow, a squall-induced mesohigh and a wake low as well as corresponding multiple surface convergence-divergence flow structure; 6) the evolution of a traveling 700 mb shortwave; 7) the development of a rear-inflow jet; 8) the leading convective rainfall followed by a transition zone and trailing stratiform precipitation; 9) the observed configuration of front-to-rear relative flow at both upper and lower levels separated by the rear-to-front flow at midlevels; 10) the simulation of ?onion-shaped? soundings; 11) the splitting of the wake low; 12) the maintenance and intensification of a mesovortex; 13) the distribution and magnitude of convective and stratiform rainfall; and 14) the diurnal cycle of the planetary boundary layer. One of the encouraging results is that the model accurately simulates the rear-inflow jet as verified against Doppler windprofiler data after the 18-h integration from essentially synoptic-scale initial conditions. The results confirm the previously proposed hypothesis that the wake low develops hydrostatically as a consequence of adiabatic warming by descending flow entering the squall line within the rear-inflow jet The observed ?onion-shaped? soundings are a manifestation of the warming and drying of air within the descending rear inflow jet. It is found that the present wake low is not a transient meso-? scale phenomenon, but has a time scale of more than 50% of the squall line lifetime. Another finding is that the present mesovortex is not produced by latent heat release associated with the squall line but was in existence prior to the model initialization time. The vortex appears to have a significant effect on the distribution of the rainfall associated with the squall line and on the intensity of the rear-inflow jet. Other mesoscale circulation features are also documented in this paper. This study, along with previous investigations using the model, indicates that the meso-? scale structure and evolution of MCSs under certain synoptic-scale environmental conditions can be well simulated using the standard network observations if compatible grid resolution, reasonable model physics and initial conditions are utilized.