Explosive east coast cyclogenesis over the west-central North Atlantic Ocean - A composite study derived from ECMWF operational analyses

• Main Author: Manobianco, John
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1989
• Subjects: 47; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19900026905

This paper describes the observational aspects of explosive east-coast cyclogenesis using composites constructed from the daily global analyses generated and archived by ECMWF. An explosively deepening storm or bomb is defined as an extratropical cyclone whose mean sea-level pressure falls at least 1 mb/h for 24 h. The ECMWF data sets are used to examine the three-dimensional kinematic and thermodynamic structure of bombs over the entire depth of the troposphere. The evolution and structure of the composite bomb is diagnosed using a moving coordinate system consisting of a box with dimensions of 35 x 35 deg of latitude-longitude. The results reveal that explosive cyclogenesis is a baroclinic phenomenon in which the rapid development in the presence of strong upper tropospheric forcing is most likely enhanced by a highly destabilized lower troposphere.