Jimmy Correia Jr. can be reached at:  jimmyc.at.iastate.edu
PHD research topic:
1.  Thermodynamic properties of mesoscale convective system observed during BAMEX.
2.  Idealized mesoscale convective system structure and propagation using convective parameterization.
3.  Boundary layer development in coarse and fine grid simulations prior to deep convection initiation.

Dissertation.pdf

Observations.pdf
  -accepted with revisions (8-6-07); first revision submitted (10-19-07)

2Dkf.pdf
 -accepted with revisions (6-15-07); final acceptance (10-10-07).

3D.pdf
  -In final preparation

Main Points
1. Observations indicate that some unanswered questions remain as to the nature of the stability in the cold pool, the vertical thermodynamic structure of deep cold pools, and the association of microphysical processes. More when the final version is ready to go. reviewer comments were great...

2. 2D simulations usingthe KF scheme show that propagating convection does occur. Scheme design determines how fast the paramterized system propagates. Tuning several parameters changes the structure of the MCS but does not significantly alter the propagation speed. When we specified a deep cold pool the convection accelerated to 2.5 times the speed in the control simulations. Changing the magnitude of the heating/cooling affected the propagation speeds by an additional ±10%. This meant that the cold pool depth was more important than the heating maximum location or magnitude.  Modification to the downdraft model would appear to be a high priority.

3. 3D simulations showed that the CPSs hid a fundamental dependency on the PBL scheme. While thermodynamic parameters of the PBL were unchanged, vertical velocity was dependent on the CPS.  The scheme os Anderson et al. (2007) produced a squall line reminiscent of observations better than the KF scheme. Issues with using a CPS at a scale of 10 km were also addressed. For the 4 km simulations without a CPS, vertical velocity depended on the PBL scheme in terms of being local or non-local.  The Local scheme produced convective intiation more rapidly,  led to MCS demise due to production of vortices on the gust front, and produced stronger surface winds as a result. The non-local scheme created gust fronts which were more uniform, longer lived and contained less spatial variability of relative vorticity.