Author: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) November 16, 2021
Scientists provide new insights into how intense thunderstorms push water vapor from the troposphere (the atmosphere closest to the Earth's surface) into the stratosphere. Their research proposes a function called "hydraulic jump" as part of this process.
When severe thunderstorms develop, most of these storms rapidly grow upward through the troposphere until they reach the tropopause. Unable to grow further, their tops flatten and give the storm a unique anvil-like shape.
However, in some particularly powerful supercells, strong updrafts can rush upward into the stratosphere. The tops of these overshoots can cause on-anvil cirrus clouds (AACP) to form a few kilometers above the storm, where they propagate downwind.
In addition to heralding the upcoming severe weather, such as large tornadoes and hail events, on the ground below, it is thought that the formation of these clouds may also play an important role in injecting water vapor into the lower stratosphere, although this is still controversial. And there is a lack of proper AACP physical models—and many of their characteristics and effects, including potential climate feedback—.
To understand the physical properties of AACP and its potential role in stratospheric hydration, Morgan O'Neill and colleagues combined large eddy simulations and corroborating radar observations.
O'Neill et al. It was discovered that storm clouds rising to the stratosphere acted as a topographic barrier and deflected high-altitude wind currents. This will produce a hydraulic jump downstream of the storm at the top of the troposphere, which will encourage strong injection of water vapor into the depths of the stratosphere at a rate of possibly more than 7 tons per second.
According to the author, AACP is a clear manifestation of this process.
"Deepen your understanding of the physics of supercell thunderstorms—combined with the new observations collected by NASA’s summer stratospheric dynamics and chemistry missions... It is expected that significant progress will be made in solving the remaining uncertainties of tropospheric to stratospheric transmission, Quantify its impact at present and predict how this mechanism will respond to changing climatic conditions," Jessica Smith wrote in a related opinion.
For more information on this research, read the mystery of the icy plume that may herald the deadly supercell storm solved by Stanford University scientists.
Reference: "Hydraulic Jump Dynamics Over Supercell Thunderstorms", by Morgan E O'Neill, Leigh Orf, Gerald M. Heymsfield and Kelton Halbert, September 10, 2021, Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.abh3857
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