The mesoscale and microscale structure and organization of clouds and precipitation in midlatitude cyclones. XI: comparisons between observational and theoretical aspects of rainbands.

Abstract

The warm-sector flow ahead of the cold front and above the cold-frontal zone aloft was unstable to conditional symmetric instability, and theoretical predictions for this mechanism are consistent with several aspects of the warm-sector and wide cold-frontal rainbands. In the case of the warm-sector rainbands, other mechanisms may have also played a role. The core structure of the narrow cold-frontal rainbands appeared to be affected by an instability that derived its energy from the horizontal shear across the surface front. -from Authors