Short coursework version

This course work concentrates on formation of icing and thunderstorm. Knowlegde

about these two natural hazards are vital for the aviation personnel.

Instability is a critical factor in the development of severe weather, and severe

weather instability indices can be a useful tool when applied correctly to a given
convective weather situation. Severe weather indices only indicate the potential for
convection. A lifted index with a value of 0 ◦C is sufficient for severe weather
development only if the dynamics are very strong. When the lifting index is −8 ◦C
or less, severe weather can occur with very weak upper-air support. A
thunderstorm occurs in response to synoptic-scale and mesoscale forcing. To
develop a thunderstorm it usually needs warm and moist air at low levels, cool and
dry air at upper levels and a synoptic-scale disturbance. Under these conditions,
thunderstorm formation is probable.

In meteorology, convective instability or stability of an air mass refers to its

ability to resist vertical motion. A stable atmosphere makes vertical movement
difficult, and small vertical disturbances dampen out and disappear. In
an unstable atmosphere, vertical air movements (such as in orographic lifting,
where an air mass is displaced upwards as it is blown by wind up the rising slope
of a mountain range) tend to become larger, resulting in turbulent airflow
and convective activity. Instability can lead to significant turbulence, extensive
vertical clouds, and severe weather such as thunderstorms.

Upwards The movement of air parcel

Updrafts in powerful thunderstorms can approach a whopping 50 meters per

second (a little over 100 miles per hour). So, what's the mechanism for generating
such fast speeds? Obviously, the atmosphere must deviate from hydrostatic
equilibrium in order for air to accelerate upward to such impressive speeds, and
we've already touched on the basic mechanism for generating such fast upward
motions -- convection driven by buoyancy.
Instability indexes –

In meteorology, instability can be described by various indices such as the Bulk

Richardson Number, lifted index, K-index, convective available potential energy
(CAPE), the Showalter, and the Vertical totals. These indices, as well as
atmospheric instability itself, involve temperature changes through
the troposphere with height, or lapse rate. Effects of atmospheric instability in
moist atmospheres include thunderstorm development, which over warm oceans
can lead to tropical cyclogenesis, and turbulence. In dry atmospheres,
inferior mirages, dust devils, steam devils, and fire whirls can form. Stable
atmospheres can be associated with drizzle, fog, increased air pollution, a lack of
turbulence, and undular bore formation.

Cumulus. Severe icing is likely to occur in the upper half of heavy cumulus clouds
approaching the mature cumulonimbus stage especially when the temperatures are
between 0°C and -25°C. The horizontal extent of such cloud is, however, limited
so that the aircraft is exposed for only a short time. The zone of probable icing in
cumuliform clouds is smaller horizontally but greater vertically than in stratiform
clouds. Further, icing is more variable in cumuliform clouds because many of the
factors conducive to icing depend to a large degree on the stage of development of
the particular cloud. Icing intensities may range from generally a trace in small
supercooled cumulus to often light or moderate in cumulus congestus and
cumulonimbus. Icing is generally restricted to the updraft regions in a mature
cumulonimbus, and to a shallow layer near the freezing level in a dissipating
thunderstorm. Icing in cumuliform clouds is usually clear to mixed.

A thunderstorm contains updrafts in which unstable air rises. Hydrometeors,

which is a scientific name for water or ice particles in the atmosphere, collide in
these updrafts due to their different sizes and fall rates. Under specific conditions,
these collisions result in a charge transfer between particles, which lead to charge
building up on some of the hydrometers. Specifically, when ice crystals collide
with graupel in the presence of supercooled water droplets, charge is transferred
between these ice particles so that they are left with either a surplus or deficit of
electrons following the collision. Most commonly, the smaller and lighter ice
crystals are left with a deficit of electrons and therefore are positively charged
whereas the graupel typically takes on a negative charge due to a surplus of
electrons. The animation below illustrates this process.
A thunderstorm contains updrafts in which unstable air rises. Hydrometeors,
which is a scientific name for water or ice particles in the atmosphere, collide in
these updrafts due to their different sizes and fall rates. Under specific conditions,
these collisions result in a charge transfer between particles, which lead to charge
building up on some of the hydrometers. Specifically, when ice crystals collide
with graupel in the presence of supercooled water droplets, charge is transferred
between these ice particles so that they are left with either a surplus or deficit of
electrons following the collision. Most commonly, the smaller and lighter ice
crystals are left with a deficit of electrons and therefore are positively charged
whereas the graupel typically takes on a negative charge due to a surplus of
electrons. The animation below illustrates this process.
Strong updrafts and downdrafts occur in thunderstorms as well. Updrafts
characterize a storm’s early development, during which warm air rises to the level
where condensation begins and precipitation starts to develop. In a mature storm,
updrafts are present alongside downdrafts caused by cooling and by falling
precipitation. These downdrafts, originating at high levels, contain cold, dense air
that spreads out at the ground as a cold air wedge. The sharp changes in wind
direction associated with downdrafts near the ground are a threat to aircraft during
landing and takeoff. Intense downdrafts are called downbursts or microbursts.
 1.1. Thunderstorm

The three main ingredients for a thunderstorm to grow and develop are instability,
moisture, and a lifting mechanism.

The life of a typical non-severe thunderstorm goes through three stages: Cumulus,
Mature, and Dissipating. In the first stage (cumulus), we see the cloud that will
become the thunderstorm starting to form and grow due to the rising thermal (or
updraft). The rising updraft of air will begin to cool and condense as it rises, and in
the case of thunderstorms, the thermal can travel tens of thousands of feet up
before it finally stops! During this stage, small raindrops may begin to form and try
to fall; however, the wind flow in the updraft can push the raindrops higher into the
cloud rather than letting them fall out.  At that level the raindrops collide and join
into larger droplets due to the churning turbulence in the cloud.

Eventually, the raindrops will become large and heavy enough to fall from the
cloud to the ground. This marks the beginning of the second stage (mature). The
term downdraft is used to describe the rain and the cool air that begins to descend
from the thunderstorm. You can think of a downdraft as a blob of cool air in the
cloud that is heading toward the earth’s surface (opposite of an updraft).
Downdrafts can change the temperature rapidly in an area in a short amount of
time. For example, during a hot, summer afternoon in Sattley, California, the
temperature was a blazing 97 degrees at 4:00 P.M.  However, after a thunderstorm
passed through the area, the downdraft dropped the temperature to a cool 57
degrees by 5:00 P.M., a 40 degree temperature swing in one hour!  However, most
storms cool things off a more modest 10-15 degrees because of evaporative
cooling.

When the downdraft hits the ground, it begins to spread out in all directions. When
this happens, a gust front can form. The gust front is basically a boundary that
separates the rain-cooled air from the surrounding warm air shown in Figure C.
Sometimes, a menacing-looking shelf cloud or roll cloud will form along the gust
front.  As you can imagine, the wind behind the gust front can be very strong,
sometimes even reaching severe levels.

Within a single thunderstorm, there are updrafts and downdrafts and a variety of
cloud particles and precipitation. Measurements show that thunderclouds in
different geographic locations tend to produce an excess negative charge at
altitudes where the ambient air temperature is between about −5 and −15 °C (23 to
5 °F). Positive charge accumulates at both higher and lower altitudes. The result is
a division of charge across space that creates a high electric field and the
possibility of significant electrical activity.