ENERGETICS OF A SINGLE-CELL THUNDERSTORM
Open Access
- Author:
- Ritchie, Lindsey Thomson
- Graduate Program:
- Meteorology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- November 21, 2008
- Committee Members:
- Peter R Bannon, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Peter R Bannon, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- available energy
traditional energy
thermodynamics
thunderstorm
energetics
energy conservation - Abstract:
- A nonlinear moist compressible numerical model is used to simulate deep moist convection generated by a prescribed localized warm bubble. The evolution of the storm is described. Particular attention is focused on two different Eulerian formulations of the storm energetics. The first formulation is the traditional energetics consisting of kinetic, potential, and internal energetics. The second formulation is the available energetics that can be divided into potential, elastic, and chemical energies. Two different thermodynamic schemes are presented, and both schemes are shown to satisfy the thermodynamic constraints on a moist system. The two energy formulations are compared and contrasted for each thermodynamic scheme for two model atmospheres. In the first model atmosphere, all the moisture is in the form of water vapor and no phase changes are allowed. It is shown that this atmosphere produces comparable results to the energetics of a dry atmosphere. In the second model atmosphere, both phase changes and fallout are allowed using the cloud microphysics parameterization of Kessler. With the addition of the enthalpy carried by the precipitation, the total traditional energy is conserved. It is postulated that the total available energy would be conserved with the addition of the available phase change and available rain energies.