Code for severe convective storm (SCS) environmental sounding model described in Chavas and Dawson (2021).

CD21_SCSsounding_CM1.m produces an idealized environmental sounding: vertical profiles of temperature, moisture, pressure, and vector winds. The code can be run out of the box in MATLAB. Any dependencies are included in the mfiles/ folder. The input parameters are defined by the user in the “USER INPUT” section at the top of the file.

The code will produce two plots: thermodynamic vertical profiles “CD21_SCSsounding_CM1_thermal.pdf” and kinematic vertical profiles “CD21_SCSsounding_CM1_wind.pdf”. The code will also output a sounding text file “CD21_SCSsounding_CM1.txt” that is formatted for direct input into the numerical model Cloud Model 1 (CM1), which is widely used in the weather community.

Chavas D. R. and D. T. Dawson II (2021). An idealized physical model for the severe convective storm environmental sounding. J. Atmos. Sci., 78(2), pp.653-670.

Shortened abstract: This work develops a theoretical model for steady thermodynamic and kinematic profiles for severe convective storm environments. The model is phrased in terms of static energy, and it allows for independent variation of the boundary layer and free troposphere separated by a capping inversion. An algorithm is presented to apply the model to generate a sounding for numerical simulations of severe convective storms, and the model is compared and contrasted with that of Weisman and Klemp. The construction of this minimal model is flexible and amenable to additional modifications as needed. The model offers a novel framework that may be useful for testing how severe convective storms depend on the vertical structure of the hydrostatic environment, as well as for linking variability in these environments to the physical processes that produce them within the climate system.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Chavas, D. R.; Dawson, D. T. (2022). Code for the severe convective storm (SCS) environmental sounding model described in Chavas and Dawson (2021, JAS).. Purdue University Research Repository. doi:10.4231/DP2D-YF95

  BibTex | EndNote

1. Climate
2. convection
3. EAPS
4. EAPS (Dept)
5. Environment
6. idealized modeling
7. numerical modeling
8. severe convective storms
9. severe thunderstorms
10. severe weather
11. sounding

initial version