Extended Abstract

Convection over the Taunus Mountains: Distribution, Tracks and LifeCycleChristoph Brendel and Bodo AhrensInstitute for Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Frankfurtchristoph.brendel@iau.uni-frankfurt.de1. IntroductionDeep convection belongs to one of the most intensive atmospheric processes on earth. Deepconvection is often associated with heavy rainfalls, wind gusts, hail and lightning. In some cases,strongly depending on favourable meteorological key parameters, the development of tornados ispossible (DOSWELL 2001). These natural hazards can result in high damages, insurance costs andsometimes loss of human lives. Convective processes occur on the local- and mesoscale, and arehighly variable in space and time in their occurrence and intensity. For this reason forecasting ofconvection in detail is difficult. Especially the areas of formation, the tracks of single convective cellsand their behaviour are not predictable. Rain gauge networks are also not able to detect convectiveprecipitation in its totality and therefore a high-resolution long-term climatology of deep convectiondoes not exist. Regarding these problems there was a motivation to find out how convective cellsoccur and trace over complex terrain, e.g. low mountain ranges. There are some examinations aboutthe influence of mountainous areas on convection done in the USA. On the one hand the aim was toidentify regions, which initiate convection depending on different stream directions (BANTA andSCHAAF 1987) and on the other hand the suggestion was to investigate the influence of the ColoradoRocky Mountain Range on the diurnal cycle of convective precipitation for two summer seasons(KARR and WOOTEN 1976).2. Area of InvestigationThe area of investigation is located in the German low mountain ranges with focus on the TaunusMountains (Fig. 1). The Taunus Mountains consist of three parts: a main ridge (a) that is orientatedfrom southwest to northeast; a northern part with some side ridges orientated from southeast tonorthwest, separated by a large valley/basin (b) into a western (c) and an eastern part (d); and asouthern narrow zone (e) dropping off steeply to the Rhein-Main-Basin.Figure 1: Area ofinvestigation,digital elevationmodel (shaded),area borders ofunspoiled nature(grey lines),dimension of thewhole area (80kmnorth-south and100km west-east)-11-