Convection Initiation Associated with the Merger of an Immature Sea-Breeze Front and a Gust Front in Bohai Bay Region, North China: A Case Study

The mechanism for convection initiation (CI) associated with the merger of an immature sea-breeze front (SBF) and gust front (GF) that occurred in North China on 31 July 2010 was investigated based on both observations and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulation. The results show that many CIs occurred continuously in the merging area, and eventually resulted in an intense mesoscale convective system (MCS). The WRF simulation captured the general features of the SBF, GF, their merger processes and associated CIs, as well as the resulting MCS. Quantitative Lagrangian vertical momentum budgets, in which the vertical acceleration was decomposed into dynamic and buoyant components, were conducted along the backward trajectories of air parcels within a convective cell initiated in the merger processes. It was found that both of the dynamic and buoyant accelerations played important roles for the CI. The buoyant acceleration was dominated by the warming due to the latent heat release within the convective cell. Further decomposition of the dynamic acceleration showed the vertical twisting and extension contributed significantly to the dynamic acceleration, while the horizontal curvature was rather small. The vertical twisting was generated due to the vertical shear of horizontal wind, while the extension indicated convergences owing to a mid-level blocking convergence effect and squeezing, and (or) merging of the convergent leading edges of both fronts during their merger processes. The weak convergent leading edge of the immature SBF played an important role for the formation of the convergences.