A kinematic investigation of the influence of anvil air flow over convective nephsystems on high-level horizontal flow
The interactions between horizontal ambient flow and divergent wind fields, such as those that obtain atop cumulonimbus complexes, were investigated (theoretically) kinematically. The following were observed from the results of the analyses. First, for a particular divergent field, the relative mass flux over the area of the nephsystem decreased as the strength of the horizontal flow increased. Secondly, while in some of the cases analyzed the interaction between the two flows only resulted in the fanning out of streamlines and a slight redistribution in the wind speed, in many cases backflows and a total reorganization of the wind field occurred. Backflows have a blocking effect on the horizontal flow. Some of the computed patterns were compared with upper level cloud vectors (from geostationary satellite photographs). The comparison indicated that the computed resultant wind field could be used to explain some features of such satellite-derived wind fields.