This page shows results from a CGCAM simulation of a strong thunderstorm observed
near Springfield Missouri on 31 May, 2016. The computational domain is
150 x 150 x 24 km and uses 125 x 62.5 m horizontal and vertical resolution. The
thunderstorm is forced using the idealized heating distribution of Heale et al.
(2019), which has a horizontal Gaussian shape with standard deviation of 8 km,
and a half-wave cosine vertical distribution 9.5 km in height. The thunderstorm
center is at an altitude of 6.5 km and has a duration of 20 minutes.
The tropopause lies at about 13 km and the thunderstorm plume is deflected horizontally at this altitude, causing a high shear zone. K-H instabilities are seen at the tropopause starting at a time of 25 minutes (measured from the thunderstorm heating onset). The K-H and resulting turbulence is marginally resolved on the current grid with 125 x 62.5 (horizontal, vertical) resolution. The turbulent zone generates secondary waves, which are seen best near the end of the first animation clip shown below (cross-sectional view of vertical velocity).
The tropopause lies at about 13 km and the thunderstorm plume is deflected horizontally at this altitude, causing a high shear zone. K-H instabilities are seen at the tropopause starting at a time of 25 minutes (measured from the thunderstorm heating onset). The K-H and resulting turbulence is marginally resolved on the current grid with 125 x 62.5 (horizontal, vertical) resolution. The turbulent zone generates secondary waves, which are seen best near the end of the first animation clip shown below (cross-sectional view of vertical velocity).