Extratropical Synoptic-Scale Processes and Severe Convection

Moist Convection and the Thermal Stratification of the Extratropical Troposphere

Simulations with an aquaplanet general circulation model show that sensible and latent heat transport by large-scale eddies influences the extratropical thermal stratification over a wide range of climates, even in relatively warm climates with small meridional surface temperature gradients. Variations of the lapse rate toward which the parameterized moist convection in the model relaxes atmosp...

The effect of convection on the summertime extratropical lower stratosphere

Evidence for the role of the diabatic heating in synoptic scale processes: a case study example

The quasigeostrophic theory is used to address the role of diabatic forcing in synoptic scale processes over Iberia. A parametrization of diabatic heating is obtained in terms of a thermodynamic variable called the ice-liquid water potential temperature which is conservative under all phase changes of water. A case study objectively selected by means of a rotated principal component analysis ov...

The roles of convection, extratropical mixing, and in-situ freeze-drying in the tropical tropopause layer

Mechanisms for transporting and dehydrating air across the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) are investigated with a conceptual two dimensional (2-D) model. The 2-D TTL model combines the Holton and Gettelman cold trap dehydration mechanism (Holton and Gettelman, 2001) with the two column convection model of Folkins and Martin (2005). We investigate 3 possible transport scenarios through the TTL:...

Fine-scale structure of the extratropical tropopause region

[1] A vertically high resolved climatology of the thermal and wind structure of the extratropical tropopause region is presented. The climatology is based on data from 80 U.S. radiosonde stations covering the period 1998–2002. Time averages for each radiosonde station are computed using the tropopause as a common reference level for all vertical profiles within the mean. A strong inversion at t...