An Overview of Low‐Level Jet Winds and Corresponding Mixed Layer Depths During PECAN

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dc.contributor.authorCarroll, Brian J.
dc.contributor.authorDemoz, Belay B.
dc.contributor.authorDelgado, Ruben
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-18T14:34:28Z
dc.date.available2019-10-18T14:34:28Z
dc.date.issued2019-08-09
dc.description.abstractThirty southerly low‐level jet (LLJ) events were observed during the Plains Elevated Convection at Night (PECAN) field campaign in the Great Plains region of the United States during summer 2015. Here we present Doppler lidar wind data from three PECAN instrumentation sites to explore characteristics of LLJs and the boundary layer as well as some of the heterogeneities possible within the wind field of a LLJ. Southerly LLJs were observed on 66% of nights at the southwestern site (Greensburg, KS) but only 56% and 53% of nights at the eastern and northern sites, respectively (Hesston and Ellis, KS). The northernmost site had a relative abundance of weaker jets or nonjet conditions due to fronts or convective systems that only affected part of the observation domain. Plotting mean wind fields of each LLJ type reveals that the strongest LLJs tend to develop under very similar conditions but begin to show variability in wind profile evolution after several hours. A robust mixed layer height retrieval algorithm is used to investigate the interplay between the jets and the turbulent convective boundary layer, showing that stronger LLJs are preceded by deeper afternoon mixed layers and often have a later decoupling of mixing between the upper convective mixed layer and the near‐surface layer. Only the strongest LLJs generated a shallow mixing layer overnight. Comparing jet strength and direction to pristine nocturnal convection initiation shows that the strongest southerly LLJs yielded the most pristine nocturnal convection initiation events per night, and the pristine nocturnal convection initiation occurred farther north.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was funded by National Science Foundation award (AGS‐1503563) to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the NASA Minority University Research and Education Project IRO NNX15AQ03A. B. Demoz was also funded through NOAA Cooperative Science Center in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, funded by the Educational Partnership Program at NOAA in collaboration with Howard University. All data used for this research are in the PECAN archive managed by NCAR/EOL under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, https://data.eol.ucar.edu/master_list/?project=PECAN. The FP2 Doppler lidar mixed layer product is not archived. We thank all PECAN participants for their efforts and Sean Stelten and William Gallus for providing their logs of convective events. Color‐blind‐safe wind direction plots were designed by Peter Kovesi, “Good Colour Maps: How to Design Them,” arXiv:1509.03700 [cs.GR] 2015.en_US
dc.description.urihttps://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JD030658en_US
dc.format.extent20 pagesen_US
dc.genrejournal articlesen_US
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/m2esxg-qzzc
dc.identifier.citationCarroll, Brian J.; Demoz, Belay B.; Delgado, Ruben; An Overview of Low‐Level Jet Winds and Corresponding Mixed Layer Depths During PECAN; Journals of geophysical Researches: Atmospheres 124,16; https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030658en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030658
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/15908
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherAmerican Geophysical Unionen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtThe University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Physics Department Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET)
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Faculty Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Student Collection
dc.rightsThis item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
dc.rights©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
dc.rightsAccess to this item will begin on 2020-02-09
dc.subjectlow‐level jetsen_US
dc.subjectnocturnal boundary layeren_US
dc.subjectmixed layer depthen_US
dc.subjectnocturnal convectionen_US
dc.subjectDoppler lidaren_US
dc.titleAn Overview of Low‐Level Jet Winds and Corresponding Mixed Layer Depths During PECANen_US
dc.typeTexten_US

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