Potential vorticity structure of embedded convection in a warm conveyor belt and its relevance for the large-scale dynamics

• Main Authors: Oertel, Annika, Boettcher, Maxi, Joos, Hanna, Sprenger, Michael, Wernli, Heini
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2019-3; http://www.weather-clim-dynam-discuss.net/wcd-2019-3/

Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) are important airstreams in extratropical cyclones. They can influence the large-scale flow evolution due to the modification of the potential vorticity (PV) distribution during their cross-isentropic ascent. Although WCBs are typically described as slantwise ascending and stratiform cloud producing airstreams, recent studies identified convective activity embedded within the large-scale WCB cloud band. Yet, the impacts of this WCB-embedded convection have not been investigated in detail. In this study, we systematically analyse the influence of embedded convection in an eastern North Atlantic WCB on the cloud and precipitation structure, on the PV distribution, and on the larger-scale flow. For this, we apply online trajectories in a high-resolution convection-permitting simulation and perform a composite analysis to compare quasi-vertically ascending convective WCB trajectories with typical slantwise ascending WCB trajectories. We find that the convective WCB ascent leads to stronger surface precipitation including the formation of graupel, which is absent for the slantwise WCB category, indicating the key role of WCB-embedded convection for precipitation extremes. Compared to the slantwise WCB trajectories, the initial equivalent potential temperature of the convective WCB trajectories is higher and they originate from a region of larger potential instability, which gives rise to more intense cloud diabatic processes and stronger cross-isentropic ascent. Moreover, the signature of embedded convection is distinctly imprinted in the PV structure. The diabatically generated low-level positive PV anomalies, associated with a cyclonic circulation anomaly, are substantially stronger for the convective WCB trajectories. While the slantwise WCB trajectories form a wide-spread negative PV anomaly (but still with weakly positive PV values) in the upper troposphere, in agreement with previous studies, the convective WCB trajectories, in contrast, form mesoscale horizontal PV dipoles at upper levels, with one pole reaching negative PV. On the larger-scale, these individual mesoscale PV anomalies can aggregate to elongated PV dipole bands extending from the convective updraft region, which are associated with coherent larger-scale circulation anomalies. An illustrative example of such a convectively generated PV dipole band shows that within around 10 hours the negative PV pole is advected closer to the upper-level waveguide, where it strengthens the isentropic PV gradient and contributes to the formation of a jet streak. This suggests that the mesoscale PV anomalies produced by embedded convection upstream organise and persist for several hours, and therefore can influence the synoptic-scale circulation. They thus can be dynamically relevant. Finally, our results imply that a distinction between slantwise and convective WCB trajectories is meaningful because the convective WCB trajectories are characterized by distinct properties, such as the formation of graupel and of an upper-level PV dipole, which are absent for slantwise WCB trajectories.