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Vertical Profiles Window
Vertical Profiles Window supplements the tools already available (Probe, Time-series, Cities, EPSgram) on ecCharts and elsewhere. It provides information about the vertical structure of the forecast model atmosphere for any location (as selected by the Probe Tool) and any time (as selected by the Time Navigator). Currently validity times are limited to 6 hour steps up to T+120.
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- From Charts menu, select All points based products.
- Select Medium Range and Point based products. Select Vertical Profiles icon.
- Select date/time of forecast base time and date/time of forecast valid time.
- Select location, either by name or by lat/long.
Vertical Profile display
A single display comprises the following elements:
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The vertical profile uses every model level in the lower troposphere up to about 700mb, and every other level higher up than that is used to plot the vertical profiles. Before the spread metrics (e.g. 25th and 75th percentiles) are computed the model levels from each ENS member are all set to correspond the same (ensemble mean) pressure values.
Hodograph
Horizontal Winds on Pressure levels
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Fig 8.1.12.3: An example of ENS and HRES winds plotted as hodographs. Depending on the case, these can be very informative (e.g. the consistency of significant shear among ENS members).
CAPE and CIN diagram
The CAPE and CIN diagram shows the distribution of the most unstable Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) for three different categories of Convective Inhibition (CIN) in box and whisker format.
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CAPE is different in that it is bounded between 0 and some large, non-infinite, value that depends on atmospheric structure. So CAPE is stored in a different manner that does not include missing values.
Example Vertical Profile Displays
Vertical Profile and ecCharts of CIN and CAPE
Fig8.1.12.5: Vertical profile at Mao (Mahon), Menorca, Spain (arrowed) with HRES CIN and CAPE, all from ecCharts: T+108 VT 18UTC 12 Aug 2020, DT 00UTC 8 Aug 2020.
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Other cases will of course have different characteristics.
Vertical Profile and ecChart of Probability of Convective Precipitation
Fig8.1.12.6: A forecast vertical profile for Premuda, Croatia T+90 VT 06UTC 18 Aug 2020, DT 00UTC 14 Aug 2020 . The corresponding ecChart shows the forecast probability for convective precipitation (same model runs).
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It is wise to consider both the probability of convective precipitation charts and the vertical profiles together rather than using either alone to assess the possibility of active convective cells.
Vertical Profile Sequence showing variation of CIN and CAPE through 24 hours
Fig8.1.12.7: Sequence of forecast vertical profiles for Brindisi, Italy illustrating the variation in CIN and consequent availability of CAPE through a full 24h diurnal cycle in which the structure of the atmosphere above the lowest layers remains largely unchanged. Here, for simplicity, CIN is defined as: low CIN<50J/kg, moderate 50J/kg<CIN<200J/kg, large CIN>200J/kg.
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Although this case does not definitively highlight active convection, the hodographs indicate some vertical shear through the model atmosphere which would be conducive to organised deep moist convection if large CAPE were available and were released.
Forecast vertical profiles in the vicinity of a mobile cold front
Fig8.1.12.8: The ENS forecast frontal zones from the cyclone database products T+120hr VT:00UTC 22 Aug 2020, DT:00UTC 17 Aug 2020. Inset shows magnified area around Denmark. Animation of cyclone database products allows an assessment of the developing spread and changing intensity of frontal features.
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