Overshooting cloud top, variation of tropopause and severe storm formationThe development of severe multicell thunderstorms leading to the touchdown of six tornados near Pampa, TX, on May 19-20, 1982, is characterized in detail on the basis of weather maps, rawinsonde data, and radar summaries, and the results are compared with GOES rapid-scan IR images. The multicell storm cloud is shown to have formed beginning at 1945 GMT at the point of highest horizontal moisture convergence and lowest tropopause height and to have penetrated the tropopause at 2130 GMT, reaching a maximum altitude and a cloud-top black-body temperature 9 C lower than the tropopause temperature at 2245 GMT and collapsing about 20 min, when the firt tornado touched down. The value of the real-time vertical profiles provided by satellite images in predicting which severe storms will produce tornados or other violent phenomena is stressed.
Document ID
19850055580
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Hung, R. J. (Alabama, University Huntsville, AL, United States)
Smith, R. E. (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Atmospheric Science Div., Huntsville, AL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 12, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1984
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Meeting Information
Meeting: Conference on Satellite/Remote Sensing and Applications