WARM FRONT SHIELD - KEY PARAMETERS
by ZAMG
- Equivalent thickness:
The crowding zone of the equivalent thickness typical for a frontal zone can be found at the leading part of the cloud shield.
- Thermal front parameter (TFP):
The TFP has its maximum close to the area of the surface front, which is situated within the cloud shield at the warm side of the crowding zone
of the equivalent thickness. Consequently, no indication for the location of the surface Warm Front from the cloud image alone is possible.
- Warm advection (WA):
The whole cloudiness of the Warm Front Shield (frontal cloudiness as well as the cloudiness of the warm sector) is within more or less
strongly pronounced WA. Like the Warm Front described before (see
Warm Front Band - Key parameters
), the field of WA increases towards the Occlusion point. Therefore its maximum can be found, in the case of an eastward moving frontal system,
in the northern part of the cloud shield. A second, usually less pronounced, WA maximum can be found within the central part of the cloud shield
(the warm sector). While the first maximum represents the Warm Conveyor Belt ascending to the surface frontal zone, the second maximum represents
the Warm Conveyor Belt ascending to the upper level frontal zone (see Typical appearance in vertical cross section).
- Shear vorticity at 300 hPa:
The zero line coincides with the leading edge of the Warm Front cloud shield.
- Isotachs at 300 hPa:
The leading edge of the Warm Front cloud shield is superimposed by a jet streak with intensities varying from case to case.
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27 January 1995/00.30 UTC - Meteosat IR image; blue: thermal front parameter 500/850 hPa, green: equivalent thickness
500/850 hPa
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27 January 1995/00.30 UTC - Meteosat IR image; blue: thermal front parameter 500/850 hPa, red: temperature advection
500/1000 hPa
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27 January 1995/00.30 UTC - Meteosat IR image; yellow: isotachs 300 hPa, black: zero line of shear vorticity 300 hPa
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Although the parameter distribution generally shows a lot of features of the ideal description, there is some evidence that the model is about 3 to 5 degrees too far in the south-west. A relevant shift would lead to an even better coincidence between model parameters and satellite cloudiness.