The effect of melting processes on the development of a tropical and a midlatitude squall line

Abstract

Several sensitivity tests are performed to assess the effect of melting processes on the development of a midlatitude continental squall line and a tropical oceanic squall line. It is found that melting processes play an important role in the structure of a midlatitude continental squall system. For the maritime tropical case, squall development is not as sensitive to the presence of melting, due to the dominance of warm rain processes. Melting processes exert an influence on midlatitude cloud system development through the conversion of ice particles to rain. The simulated convective system was found to be much weaker in the absence of evaporative cooling by rain. For a given vertical shear of horizontal wind, cooling by evaporation in the convective region was found to be essential for maintaining a long-lived cloud system. -from Authors