Simulated Convective Lines with Parallel Stratiform Precipitation. Part II: Governing Dynamics and Associated Sensitivities

Abstract

This article is the second of two describing convective lines with parallel stratiform (PS) precipitation. The PS mode appears to be the preferred organizational structure in environments with line-parallel vertical wind shear. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the processes that lead to the development of the PS structure within line-parallel shear, and the positive and negative feedbacks associated with the mature PS structure. As well, the particular importance of line-perpendicular and line-parallel wind shear, line-end effects, inertial stability, and patterns of convective initiation are investigated through a battery of sensitivity tests. Convective lines with PS precipitation develop in environments with both significant line-perpendicular and line-parallel vertical wind shear. Although the studied environments are initially supportive of supercells, the merging of outflows soon renders a predominant linear forcing and the characteristic PS structure. The systems? linearity in the presence of along-line wind shear makes the local wind field more dependent upon the mesoscale structure of the convective system. For example, the along-line transport of hydrometeors is required for the development of a line-parallel precipitation region, and yet this transport does not occur immediately down the convective line?s axis because it is interrupted by the pressure maxima associated with other convective cells that are farther down the line. However, the along-line flow within the line?s leading and trailing anvils is able to contribute substantially because there are along-line pressure gradient accelerations associated with the tilted mesoscale structure of the system?s buoyancy field. This paper concludes the study by synthesizing its dynamical and sensitivity analyses with the overarching structures described in the companion article, yielding perhaps the first consolidated view of these little-studied systems.