Evolution and Dynamics of a Late-Stage Squall Line That Occurred on 20 February 1993 during TOGA COARE

Abstract

Airborne Doppler and flight-level data are used to document the structure and evolution of portions of a late-stage horseshoe-shaped squall line system and its effect on vertical momentum and mass transports. This system, which occurred on 20 February 1993 during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean?Atmosphere Response Experiment, was similar to many previously studied, but had some unique features. First, a slow-moving transverse band, which formed the southern leg of the horseshoe, drew most of its low-level updraft air from the squall-line stratiform region on its north side rather than the ?environment? to the south. Second, a long-lived cell with many properties similar to a midlatitude supercell, formed 150 km to the rear of the squall line. This cell was tracked for 4 h, as it propagated into and then through the cold pool, and finally dissipated as it encountered the convection forming the northern edge of the horseshoe. Finally, as the squall line was dissipating, a new convective band formed well to its rear. The transverse band and the long-lived cell are discussed in this paper. Quadruple-Doppler radar data, made possible by tightly coordinated flights by the two NOAA P3s, are used to document the flow with unprecedented accuracy. At lower levels, the transverse band flow structure is that of a two-dimensional convective band feeding on its north side, with vertical fluxes of mass and horizontal momentum a good match to the predictions of the Moncrieff archetype model. At upper levels, the transverse band flow is strongly influenced by the squall line, whose westward-tilting updraft leads to much larger vertical velocities than predicted by the model. The long-lived cell, though weak, has supercell-like properties in addition to its longevity, including an updraft rotating in the sense expected from the environmental hodograph and an origin in an environment whose Richardson number falls within the Weisman?Klemp ?supercell? regime.