Sunday, 20 January 2008
High resolution observations and modeling of a shallow, intense Great Plains cold front
Exhibit Hall B (Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
On 29 November 2006 a shallow (< 2 km deep), intense, surface cold front passed through the central and southern Great Plains of the United States. The most intense portion of the frontal zone tracked across the Texas panhandle, Oklahoma, and Kansas. This feature was an example of a characteristic type of lower tropospheric frontal structure common to the region. High resolution observations from the ARM site (e.g. Raman lidar data, AERI data, Oklahoma Mesonet data, and wind profiler data) in combination with operational and very high resolution (1-km) numerical model simulations of the event, performed using the NCAR WRF model, are used to provide a detailed analysis of the structure, evolution and dynamics of the sharp frontal boundary itself as well as the large-scale synoptic setting in which it developed. The analysis provides the most comprehensive observational/modeling study to date of such a shallow, intense frontal feature.
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