Advancing our understanding of atmospheric convection, particularly deep, moist convection, is challenging for a number of reasons. Deep, moist convection involves horribly nonlinear interactions of a wide range of scales. Phase changes and extreme diabatic heating and cooling rates unavoidably play a vital role in the initiation and maintenance of convective storms. The characteristics and evolution of convective storms is even sensitive to cloud microphysical properties and radiative transfer processes.
Despite the numerous challenges, our comprehension of the basic dynamics of convective storms (ranging from isolated, ordinary convective cells to more organized forms of convection like squall lines and supercells) has made great strides in recent decades owing to a blend of observations, numerical modeling, and theoretical studies. Nonetheless, many outstanding issues have yet to be addressed concerning key aspects of convective storms. Among these are the ways by which squall lines are sustained and what allows them or prevents them from producing widespread damaging winds at the surface, the characteristics of supercell storms that enable or inhibit tornadogenesis, and the ways by which convection is influenced by, and in turn, influences its environment.
In this session papers are invited that address any theoretical aspects of convection and its associated hazards. The potential topic areas include, but are not limited to, convective storm initiation and maintenance, storm propagation, storm-storm and storm-environment interactions, tornadogenesis, mesoscale convective vortices, and predictability.