I would like some comments re something I was pondering this week while watching CUs maturing. I think the following is self-explanatory - I didn't want to put too much as it gets pretty confusing to me!
Was in the park leaning up against a tree as one does during lunch reading Bluestein's thunderstorm/tornado book and reading up on vertical/horizontal shear. Now having the beneift of an ocean view and moderate CUs convecting in front of me to compare with the book, can i give an example and if you could either pass or fail me in my presumptions.
Scenario of horizontal vorticity: The CUs had moderate convective growth. The towers were well formed and the caps were rising to the tropopause nicely. The tower structure was nice with plenty of bouyancy evident and as the caps reached their achieved level the towers then bent to the S/SE with the CUs moving N/NE. I can't give heights in exact numbers but they were moderate in scale.
Now with the winds on the sounding today generating winds below 500 from the east at about 10-15kts and 90% of the winds above 500 were from either the W or NW but they were weaker in speed, would this show that the horizontal vorticity is predominantly from the W ? Given that, why did the tops once dissipating bend in that direction if the majority of winds were from the opposite direction? The winds aloft were light. Is it the case that the lower level winds and what i was observing was corrent as per the actual height the towers were at say 3 to 6 Km high? Was it the caps being pushed over or the storm's lower half being bent due to stronger winds?
Is vertical vorticity simply the vertical force of the updraughts associated with speed shear ? If the speed shear does not include directional shear would that indicate at least some stability for the tower to maintain structure/longevity and in essence vorticity? I think significant speed and directional shear are required for mesos - but that's another question.
On a sounding is that easily recognised or interpreted from the wind profiles.
mike