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363538-191001-021000
18-NGI3-50
N/A
10/1/2018
2019-9-30 0:0:0
Completed
$47,403.00
Mesoscale Variability Experiment Using Full Tropospheric Soundings
Brown
Mike
MSU
CH-CE
NWS
Understanding environments conducive to significant tornadoes was the goal of researchers assessing variability and the role of surface heterogeneity and mesoscale boundaries on the southeastern severe storm environment using mobile tropospheric soundings during the VORTEX-SE project. Completed were atmospheric profiles across a distinct agriculture / forest boundary where improvements in local environmental shear were noted over the agricultural region, likely due to a slightly less turbulent flow in the lower planetary boundary layer (PBL). However, surface instability across this boundary showed distinct changes where the agricultural region showed nearly twice the convective available potential energy when compared to the forested region. The greater instability was generated through slight increases in low-level atmospheric moisture over the agricultural landscape. While limited in scope, this suggests that updrafts rooted in the PBL may respond to sudden increases or decreases in instability which has been tied to tornado genesis.
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