Diabatically driven discrete propagation of surface fronts: A numerical analysis

Discrete frontal propagation has been identified as a process whereby a surface front discontinuously moves forward, without evidence of frontal passage across a mesoscale region. Numerical simulations are employed to examine the upper-level evolution of a discrete frontal propagation event and to explore the processes that were responsible for the discrete movement. Model results indicate that a frontal pressure trough was not able to penetrate through a deep surface-based layer of cool air created by a precipitating convective system several hundred kilometers in advance of the front. Meanwhile, a new low-level baroclinic zone formed well ahead of the front along the southern side of the cool layer. As the midlevel front moved continuously over the cool layer, a new low-level front developed in the new baroclinic zone and the original low-level front dissipated. At the surface, the simulated front did not pass through the cool layer. Frontogenesis terms reveal that the prefrontal circulation that becomes the new frontal circulation initially forms directly from diabatic frontogenesis. Daytime heating in the prefrontal boundary layer and cooling from thunderstorms combine to create a thermal gradient and a mesoscale pressure perturbation. Winds turn in response to the altered pressure field and form a convergent boundary, resulting in kinematic frontogenesis. The boundary subsequently undergoes rapid intensification. Sensitivity studies were conducted in which latent heating due to precipitation was withheld and the influence of clouds on the radiation scheme was ignored. In a simulation with both of these effects withheld, the original front passes continuously through the region, that is, there is no discrete propagation. Thus, diabatic processes associated with a large complex of thunderstorms were necessary to induce the discrete frontal propagation in this case. This conclusion contracts with previous studies, where fronts were observed to propagate discretely in dry environments.