edu.ucar.opensky::articles:27394 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-24T18:45:57.935933 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7dj5kvh How does vertical wind shear influence updraft characteristics and hydrometeor distributions in supercell thunderstorms? 2024-07-01T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7dj5kvh https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-23-0166.1 Mulholland, J. P. author Nowotarski, C. J. author Peters, J. M. author Morrison, Hugh author E. R. Nielsen author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Vertical wind shear is known to affect supercell thunderstorms by displacing updraft hydrometeor mass downshear, thereby facilitating the storms' longevity. Shear also impacts the size of supercell updrafts, with stronger shear leading to wider, less dilute, and stronger updrafts with likely greater hydrometeor production. To more clearly define fi ne the role of shear across different vertical layers on hydrometeor concentrations and displacements relative to supercell updrafts, a suite of idealized numerical model simulations of supercells was conducted. Shear magnitudes were systematically varied across the 0-1, 1-6, and 6-12 km AGL layers, while the thermodynamic environment was held fi xed. Simulations show that as shear magnitude increases, especially from 1 to 6 km, updrafts become wider and less dilute with an increase in hydrometeor loading, along with an increase in the low-level precipitation area/rate and total precipitation accumulation. Even with greater updraft hydrometeor loading amid stronger shear, updrafts are more intense in stronger shear simulations due to larger thermal buoyancy owing to wider, less dilute updraft cores. Furthermore, downshear hydrometeor displacements are larger in environments with stronger 1-6-km shear. In contrast, there is relatively less sensitivity of hydrometeor concentrations and displacements to variations in either 0-1- or 6-12-km shear. Results are consistent across free tropospheric relative humidity sensitivity simulations, which show an increase in updraft size and hydrometeor mass with increasing free tropospheric relative humidity owing to a reduction in entrainment-driven dilution for wider updrafts in moister environments. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright 2024 American Meteorological Society (AMS). None eng geoscientificInformation