Example of observational convection research


    My most recent observations work is with Doppler radar VAD (velocity-azimuth display) analysis. See the project web page for more details, but here is one exemplary figure summarizing a lot of high-quality data from the EPIC 2001 field program in the tropical eastern Pacific:


    This figure shows a statistical composite of the time evolution of horizontal wind divergence profiles as convective storms pass over a Doppler radar. Notice how outflow (positive wind divergence contours) begins at low altitude (~700 hPa, -10h lag before peak rainfall), then jumps to the ~500 hPa level about 6 hours before peak rainfall, before becoming very strong near the 200 hPa level at the time of peak rainfall. Precipitable water (PW) builds up during this period, then begins to decline as rainfall intensifies. After peak rainfall, winds at low levels become divergent as evaporating stratiform rainfall cools and dries the lower troposphere. The origins of the characteristic time scale of this mesoscale convective system life cycle, ~10 hours, is not well understood.
    (from reference 1 below)

  • Mapes, B.E., and J. Lin, 2004: Doppler radar observations of mesoscale wind divergence in regions of tropical convection. MWR, in press

  • Bister, M. and B.E. Mapes, 2004: Effect of vertical dipole anomalies on convection in a cloud-resolving model. JAS, in press

  • Mapes, B.E., 2004: Sensitivities of cumulus ensemble rainfall in a cloud-resolving model with parameterized large-scale dynamics. JAS, in press

  • Johnson, R.H., and B.E. Mapes, 2003: Mesoscale processes and severe convective weather. Chapter 4 of Severe Convective Weather, an AMS monograph volume published in 2003.

  • Mapes, B.E., T.T. Warner, M. Xu, and A.J. Negri, 2003: Diurnal patterns of rainfall in northwestern South America. Part I: Observations and context. MWR, 131, 799-812

  • Mapes, B.E., T.T. Warner, and Mei Xu, 2003: Diurnal patterns of rainfall in northwestern South America. Part III: Diurnal gravity waves and nocturnal convection offshore. MWR, 131, 830-844

  • Mapes, B.E., 2001: Water's two height scales: the moist adiabat and the radiative troposphere QJRMS, 127, 2253-2266. (October 2001, Part A)

  • Zhang, C., B.E. Mapes, and B. Soden, 2003: Bimodality of tropical upper-tropospheric humidity. QJRMS, 129, 2847-2866.

  • Chen, S.S., R.A. Houze, Jr., and B.E. Mapes, 1996: Multiscale analysis of deep convection and large-scale atmospheric circulations during TOGA-COARE. J. Atmos. Sci., 53, 1380-1409.

  • Mapes, B.E., and R.A. Houze, Jr., 1995: Diabatic divergence profiles in tropical mesoscale convective systems. J. Atmos. Sci., 52, 1807-1828.

  • Mapes, B.E., and R.A. Houze, Jr., 1993: Cloud clusters and superclusters over the oceanic warm pool. Mon. Wea. Rev., 121, 1398-1415.

  • Mapes, B.E., and R.A. Houze, Jr., 1992: An integrated view of the 1987 Australian monsoon and its mesoscale convective systems. Part I:Horizontal structure. Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 118, 927-963.

  • Mapes, B.E., and R.A. Houze, Jr., 1993: An integrated view of the 1987 Australian monsoon and its mesoscale convective systems. Part II: Vertical structure. Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 119, 733-754.