HR: 0800h
AN: SA51B-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Characterization of Convective Systems in Africa in Terms of their Vertical Structure, Electrification and Dynamics
AU: * Tadesse, A
EM: alemu.tadesse@uconn.edu
AF: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Connecticut, 261 Glenbrook Road Unit 2037, Storrs, CT 06269-2037, United States
AU: Anagnostou, E N
EM: manos@engr.uconn.edu
AF: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Connecticut, 261 Glenbrook Road Unit 2037, Storrs, CT 06269-2037, United States
AB: Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCS) are cloud systems that occur from an ensemble of thunder storms and result in a precipitation that covers a huge contiguous area. They are long-lived storm system having dimensions much larger than an individual storm. Storm systems associated with MCSs over the Africa are tracked for the period July to December 2004 and their properties at different stages of their life are investigated in terms of the vertical reflectivity profile, electrification and dynamics of clouds. The research is facilitated by remote sensing data, which include instantaneous vertical reflectivity fields derived from the TRMM precipitation radar (PR), coincident 1/2-hourly observations of long-range lightning accumulation and Global IR fields. Results show a strong indication of the magnitude and intensity of electrification of a thunderstorm with the stage of its life. More vigorous dynamic conditions with intense electrification are observed during the growing stage of the storm and more or less stable situation uniform distribution of electrification has been distributed to most of the pixels in the storm during its maturity stage and less rainfall and electrification during its decaying stage was a general observation during the period. The vertical reflectivity has been found to be strongly related to the electrification and the stage of the convective life cycle in such away that the reflectivity decrease as the storm matures and decays. A good correlation is observed between the strength of vertical profile of reflectivity, which is a proxy for the ice concentration, and lightning activity.
DE: 3314 Convective processes
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly