Using AWIPS to monitor an outflow boundary
Kevin J. Schrab
WR-SSD
This TA-lite will look at an outflow boundary in Southern California.
AWIPS can display a 4-panel that can be very useful in convective situations.
In this example the 4-panel includes the 0.5 degree elevation radar scan from
the Yuma 88D, visible imagery, IR window imagery, and the fog/reflectivity
product.
On April 12, 1999 there was an upper level low center slowly moving across
Southern California. Scattered thunderstorms were present over
Southern California. At 2000Z we clearly see a
thunderstorm at the NW edge of the radar coverage. The visible (w/ lightning overlain)
confirms this. The visible image also indicates an outflow boundary to the
east and southeast of the storm. The radar does not pick this up (largely due
to the distance from the radar). This is a common situation in the western
U.S. A look at a loop from 2000-2130Z shows that the
radar does not pick up the outflow boundary until it interacts with some pre-existing
convection and flares up.
The IR and fog/reflectivity product have a difficult time detecting this outflow
boundary. Although the fog/reflectivity product does indicate which clouds
are glaciating (and when).
This is just a quick example to show how AWIPS makes it easy to combine radar,
satellite, lightning, and surface data.
