Precipitation and Kinematic Structure of an Oceanic Mesoscale Convective System. Part I: Convective Line Structure

Abstract

The precipitation, thermodynamic, and kinematic structure of an oceanic mesoscale convective system is studied using airborne Doppler and in situ (flight-level) data collected by the NOAA P-3 aircraft. The system, a well-organized, stationary, north-south convective line, was located near the east coast of Taiwan. In Part I, the basic structure of the line is documented with both datasets, a procedure revealing the strengths and weakness of both approaches. The Doppler data reveal that the warm, moist air feeding the line enters from the east side. Most updrafts associated with the leading edge of the convective line tilt westward below 5 km and then eastward above 5 km. This change of tilt corresponds to a change in the sign of the vertical flux of east-west momentum. To the east of the leading edge, a 10-km-wide zone of strong mesoscale descent is seen. The band is not a complete barrier to the low-level southeasterly flow, and at times and places along the line the inflowing air can move through the band with little or no upward acceleration. The minimum pressures at low levels lie east of the highest reflectivity and also underneath the tilted updraft at upper levels, in agreement with the tilt of the updraft, the buoyancy distribution, and the interaction of the updraft with the vertical shear of the horizontal wind. The Doppler data show very few convective-scale downdrafts and no low-level gust front that would organize the convection as in propagating squall lines, although lack of resolution in the pseudo-dual-Doppler data at the lowest levels may mask features with horizontal scales <5 km. Vertical incidence Doppler observations show only a few relatively weak convective-scale downdrafts within the heavy rainfall region of the convective line. The in situ data confirm that warm, moist air feeds the convective line from the east side, but they show a larger fraction of air coming into the convection from the boundary layer than do the Doppler data. They confirm that the line is not an effective barrier to the flow: some air from the east of the line, including boundary-layer air, passes through the line without joining the updrafts. Again, some weak convective-scale downdrafts are evident, but a gust front was not detected. However, at low levels, a pool of low-?e, air lies 10?20 km to the west of the line, outside the dual-Doppler domain. This cool air apparently originated to the north (beneath an extensive stratiform area, but preexisting baroclinicity associated with a front may have also contributed to the cool air) and advected southward. Vertically incident Doppler data confirm the upper-level downdraft zone to the east of the updraft. Above 2 km, the pressure and vertical velocity fields are consistent, with low pressure lying beneath the tilting updrafts in both datasets. Below 2 km, the in situ data reveal a mesolow beneath the westward-tilting updraft that was not captured by the Doppler data, apparently because of contamination of the very lowest levels by ground clutter.