VERTICAL VELOCITY AND BUOYANCY CHARACTERISTICS OF COHERENT ECHO PLUMES IN THE CONVECTIVE BOUNDARY LAYER, DETECTED BY A PROFILING AIRBORNE RADAR

1
VERTICAL VELOCITY AND BUOYANCY CHARACTERISTICS OF
COHERENT ECHO PLUMES IN THE CONVECTIVE BOUNDARY
LAYER, DETECTED BY A PROFILING AIRBORNE RADAR
JP6J.3
Bart Geerts geerts_at_uwyo.edu
Qun Miao miao_at_uwyo.edu
Margaret LeMone lemone_at_ucar.edu National Center
for Atmospheric Research
Atmospheric Science Dept. University of Wyoming,
Laramie, WY 82071
Summary
Echo plume size characteristics
Characteristics of updraft plumes
Aircraft and airborne mm-wave radar
observations are used to interpret the dynamics
of radar echoes and radar-inferred updrafts
within the well-developed, weakly-sheared,
continental convective boundary layer (CBL).
Vertically-pointing radar reflectivity and
Doppler velocity data collected above and below
the aircraft, flying along fixed tracks in the
central Great Plains during the International
Water Vapor Experiment (IHOP_2002), are used to
define echo plumes and updraft plumes
respectively. Updraft plumes are generally
narrower than echo plumes, but both types of
plumes have the dynamical properties of buoyant
eddies, especially at low levels in the CBL. This
buoyancy is driven both by a temperature excess
and a water vapor excess over the ambient air.
Plumes that are better defined (higher
reflectivity or stronger updraft) tend to be more
buoyant. Some 34 hours of combined radar and
in situ data were collected in the mature CBL in
Kansas and Oklahoma aboard the University of
Wyoming King Air (WKA) aircraft. In all cases,
the synoptic conditions were rather quiescent and
the skies mostly cloud-free. The WKA carried a
gust probe and measured temperature and humidity
at high-frequency. The mature CBL was examined
along three fixed tracks, each about 60 km long.
The WKA flew straight legs over the three tracks,
at several constant heights. This study uses ten
flight legs along the western track on 29 May,
seven legs along the central track on 6 June, and
six legs along the eastern track on 17 June 2002.

• Similar method is used to define updraft plumes.
  Vertical average radar vertical velocity is used
  instead of reflectivity.
• The parameter ?V is referred to as the updraft
  plume strength, and it ranges between 0.0 and 1.0
  m/s.

• The likelihood of finding a plume, or an
  inter-plume region, of a given size roughly
  decays exponentially with size.

Assuming a plume strength ?Z1 dBZ
2D plumes
Assuming a plume strength ?V0.0 m/s

• The 2D structure of plumes can be described as
  well, using basically the same method as was used
  to define echo plumes based on Zm, but employing
  reflectivity data at all heights.
• Our analysis over three days shows that the
  normalized plume width and the spacing between
  plumes tend to increase slightly with height
  within the CBL

• The size distribution of updraft plumes decays
  exponentially, as for echo plumes, but updraft
  plumes tend to be narrower than echo plumes.

Radar-inferred CBL depth

• Thermodynamic and kinematic properties of
  updraft plumes

• Echo plumes covering most of the CBL depth
  clearly mark the fair-weather CBL. Because the
  scatterer density decreases rapidly across the
  CBL top, and the radar noise, expressed in
  reflectivity units, increases with the square of
  the radar range, we found zi_WCR to be best
  defined as the level at which the zenith-beam
  reflectivity reaches a minimum.
• The zi_WCR values compare well with the
  thermodynamically-defined CBL depth and
  backscatter lidar zi estimates (derived from the
  HRDL).

Thermodynamic and kinematic properties of echo
plumes

• We now compare the plume-background difference
  for several in situ variables, namely mixing
  ratio (r), potential temperature (q), virtual
  potential temperature (?v), and vertical air
  velocity (w). All these variables were low-pass
  filtered (using minimum wavelength of 120 m) and
  detrended .

• The vertical variation of updraft plume
  properties

Echo plume definition
Conclusions

• A conditional sampling technique is used to
  distinguish echo plumes from their environment
  based on radar reflectivity.
• The vertical average reflectivity (Za) comprises
  14 gates of radar reflectivity for each profile.
• An echo plume is defined as a region of Za that
  is equal to or greater than a threshold value
  (?Z) above the flight-leg-mean radar reflectivity
  (Zm). The value ?Z is referred to as the plume
  strength (ranging from 0 to 5 dB) .

• The CBL depth and its local variations are
  captured well by the radar reflectivity profiles.
• The distribution of widths of both echo plumes
  and updraft plumes shows an exponential decay,
  peaking at or close to the minimum size of 120 m.
  Updraft plumes are generally narrower than echo
  plumes.
• The thermodynamic properties of updraft plumes
  are quite similar to those of echo plumes. Echo
  plumes are generally rising and buoyant, and the
  buoyancy is partly due to excess warmth, and
  partly due to excess water vapor. Water vapor
  anomalies are important in the local bulging of
  the CBL depth above echo plumes. In general, the
  updraft strength and buoyancy of echo plumes
  increases with the relative echo strength. The
  magnitude of the buoyancy agrees with that of the
  associated updraft.
• Thus echo plumes and updraft plumes generally
  correspond with coherent, buoyancy-driven eddies
  responsible for much of the vertical energy
  transfer in the CBL. The in-plume buoyancy and
  vertical velocity profiles are indicative of
  mixing and entrainment as the plumes are rising.
• The key implication is that spatial patterns of
  clear-air echoes within the weakly-sheared CBL
  (as commonly captured in low-elevation scans of
  operational ground-based radars) depict the
  distribution of rising, convective plumes.

Assuming a plume strength ?Z1 dBZ

• The variation of plume properties inferred from
  individual flight legs, as a function of height
  in the CBL.

Assuming a plume strength ?Z1 dBZ