On the basis of the MM5 simulation data of the severe storm that occurred over the southeastern part of Hubei province on 21 July 1998, the interaction of mesoscale convection and frontogenesis is dealt with using the thermodynamical equation and frontogenetical function. The results show that the outbreak of the severe storm is closely related to the local frontogenesis. In fact, the interaction between the shearing instability of the low-level jet (LLJ) and the topographic forcing generates an gravity-inertia wave as well as local frontogenesis (the ?rst front), which consequently induce the onset of the severe storm. From then on, owing to the horizontal and vertical advection of the potential temperature, the new frontogenesis (the second front) is formed to the northeast side of the severe storm, which initiates the second rain belt. Meanwhile, a two-front structure emerges over the southeastern part of Hubei province. Accompanied with the further intensi?cation of the convection, the rain droplets evaporation cooling strengthens the ?rst front and weakens the second front, resulting in single front structure over the southeastern part of Hubei province in the period of the strong convection.
The final balanced state of an initial unbalanced flow is discussed with the same method as Vallis (1992). For the two-dimensional, inviscid, rotating and nonlinear model, the final state of the flow depends on the initial conditions. If the initial potential vortcity of the flow is non-uniform, the final state is not necessarily geostrophic. However, for the zero and uniform potential vorticity flow, the final state will satisfy the thermal wind relation when the length scale of the initial disturbance is large enough. Otherwise, discontinuity will occur in the geostrophic solution. In this case, the final balanced state will not be geostrophic any longer and an extended momentum coordinate is introduced to overcome the mult-value problem. Key words Frontogenesis - Geostrophic adjustment - Thermal wind balance - Extended momentum coordinates The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 49735180 and 40075011) and the State Key Basic Program: CHERES.
