The impact of soil moisture on the forecast of a small-scale convective system, and sensitivity of results to the convective parameterization used, are investigated through Eta Model simulations (run in an operational-like setting) of a convective system occurring on 27 May 1997 in Texas. The event was influenced by a southwestward-propagating gravity wave from early morning convection in Arkan...

In thermal convection, coherent flow structures emerge at high Rayleigh numbers as a result of intrinsic hydrodynamic instability and self-organization. They range from small-scale thermal plumes that are produced near both the top and the bottom boundaries to large-scale circulations across the entire convective volume. These flow structures exert viscous forces upon any boundary. Such forces ...

We present measurements of the transient stage of Soret-driven convective instability. The sample is a diluted colloidal suspension of silica spheres in water with an unusually large negative Soret coefficient S(T). A large temperature gradient (heating from above) is rapidly applied over the sample, while a shadowgraph imaging technique provides images of the convective flow. From the processi...

We present the first spontaneous sequence of hydrodynamic instabilities due to the evolution of the convective flow from the rest state toward chaos in an anisotropic fluid : a nematic liquid crystal subjected to an AC electric field. The resulting structures are of decreasing symmetry as the control parameter is gradually increased. The study of the streamlines allows the interpretation of the...

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