Numerical Simulation Output for the LeBel and Markowski (2023) Study on the Impact of Vertical Wind Shear on Convection Initiation

This dataset contains output from large-eddy simulations used in the LeBel and Markowski (2023) study on the impact of vertical wind shear on convection initiation. The initiation of thunderstorms in environments characterized by strong wind shear presents a forecast challenge owing to the complexities of the interactions between growing cumulus clouds and wind shear. Thunderstorms that develop in such environments are often capable of producing high-impact hazards, highlighting the importance of convection initiation in sheared environments. Although recent research has greatly improved understanding of the structure and evolution of rising thermals in unsheared environments, there remains uncertainty in how wind shear influences the convection initiation process. Two large-eddy simulations (75-m horizontal grid spacing) were performed to study this problem. Convection initiation attempts are forced in the simulations through prescribed surface heat fluxes (the initial boundary layers are statistically horizontally homogeneous and quasi-steady-state, but contain turbulent eddies as a result of random initial temperature perturbations). The only difference between the two simulations is the presence or absence of wind shear above 2 km. Important differences in the entrainment patterns are present between sheared and unsheared growing cumulus clouds. As found in previous research, the overturning circulation associated with rising thermals drives dynamic entrainment in the unsheared clouds. However, in sheared clouds, wake entrainment resulting from the tilting of environmental vorticity is an important dynamic entrainment pathway. This result has implications for both the structure of sheared growing cumulus clouds and for convection initiation in sheared environments.