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Gravity waves

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason Bolt
  • Start date Start date

Jason Bolt

SPC just issued a MD for E KS and parts of OK mentioning a gravity wave from EMP to C OK and that got me digging in to what a gravity wave is. I was vaguely familiar w/ the term and reading Habyhints got me a little more information. I am curious how it affects storm development. A search on here revealed speculation of gravity waves enhancing a tornado threat and even enhancing specific tornadic storms in past events. My questions:

How does one identify a gravity wave? Can it be seen on vis satellite?

How does it influence storm behavior on the microscale?
 
Gravity waves can be quite visible on radar, too. I've seen a number of them pass over central Iowa via KDMX. They appear as a train of inbound/outbound velocities. It's really something cool to see.
 
DMX had a pretty interesting write-up about the role gravity waves had in the Parkersburg EF5. Somone posted the link to it here a while ago, I'll see if I can dig it up.

EDIT: Here's a link to another gravity wave thread:
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=19666

Another thread about the DMX assessment for 5/25/08:
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=19104&highlight=DMX+nws+assessment

And the actually write-up from DMX:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dmx/ParkersburgSvcAssmntfinal.pdf
 
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Dr. Tim Coleman, a professor at UAH, is a leading researcher on the affect of gravity waves on local environments. He was featured on a WeatherBrains episode last year where he provided a great explanation of gravity waves and their impacts on storm scale rotation.

http://www.alabamawx.com/?p=17668
 
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