Laserfiche WebLink
<br />mid-levels combine with meso-Q scale flow instabilities to trigger <br />and organize the squall line. <br /> <br />~esoscale convective co~plexes (~CC) have been studied exten- <br />sively by ~addox (1981). These systems develop in a relatively <br />quiescent, weakly sheared, conditionally unstable environment that <br />results in nearly circular anvil clouds in contrast to the strongly <br />sheared, hig~ly elliptical anvils of squall lines. The MCC develops <br />into a meso-Q scale region of convective storms which generally <br />cover more than 100 000 km2 and last more than 6 h. These systems <br />form in regions of strong warm advection ahead of a wea~ short-wave <br />trough which provides meso-Q scale lifting of 4-8 ~bar/s in the lower <br />troposphere. These systems are thought to produce regions of latent <br />heat release in moist convective updrafts which combine with local <br />subsidence-induced warming in the storm's near environment as <br />hypothesized by Fritsch (1975). <br /> <br />The MCC is believed responsible for the nocturnal maximum of <br />warm season precipitation on the High Plains. Recently, George <br />(1979), 30sart and Sanders (1981), Cotton et ale (1982) and Wetzel <br />et ale (1982) have studied the life-cycles and rainfall character- <br />istics of ~CC cases. <br /> <br />Tropical convective systems develop in a relatively weakly <br />sheared environment with very weak mid-tropospheric advection. <br />Latent heating tends to drive the systems with intense embedded <br />convective elements similar to the ~CC. Tropical storms have been <br />described by Palmen (1948), Palmen and ~iehl (1957), Gray (1968) and <br />mOdeled by Ogura (1964), Ooyama (1964), Rosenthal (1970), and Fran< <br /> <br />16 <br />