Physic side of a Tornado:

Convective available potential energy

Definition:
Te convective available potential energy is
used as an indicator of atmospheric
instability. (in our case: for tornadoes)
With the convective available potential
energy you can measure the amount of the
energy that a parcel of air would have
lifted in a distance vertically through the
troposphere. You can also see the
atmosphere, but atmosphere is a collection
of several kinds of spheres in the
atmosphere. In the meteorology
troposphere is the most important sphere,
because in the stratosphere and higher, you
don’t have any clouds of several weather
types.

CAPE is used for condition of unstable

layers in the troposphere. This means the storm systems or the high and low pressure area’s.
CAPE is used in the free convection layer. This is also called as FCL. The entity for CAPE is
in Joules per Kilogram.

CAPE Value:
You can put the CAPE value in several categories. In this table here below I will show you the
several categories.
CAPE value Convective potential in Joule per Kilogram
0 Stable
0-1000 Marginally Unstable
1000-2500 Moderately Unstable
2500-3500 Very Unstable
3500 + Extremely Unstable

In a tornado the CAPE value is always above 3500 joules per kilogram. The storms are
rapidly increasing. You can see this with your own eyes, when the clouds are rapidly rising.
There are numbers of tornadoes that have a CAPE value of more than 5000 joules per
kilogram!
Formula:

Meanings of the letters in the formula are:

• Zn: neutral buoyancy
• Zf: heights of free convection
• g: gravity (the acceleration of it)
• Tv parcel: virtual temperature of the parcel
• Tv env: virtual temperature of the area
• Dz: Information of the weather balloon that is let loose in the area.

The use in Meteorology:

In meteorology CAPE is a indicator for the weather in the whole world. CAPE value shows
the instability of the air in different continents. ( I will show that to you in the upcoming page)
The connection between the weather and the CAPE is simple. The convective available
potential energy is a good indicator for thunderstorms, heavy rainfall, snow and hail and many
more weather phenomenas. For the continents with rainforests the CAPE value is very
important, because you can predict the monsoons in the rainforests. This weather phenomena
is an important thing for the rainforest, but for the people it can be a disaster.
Also when (for example) a hurricane is on its way to make a landfall, you can predict the
instability of the air with the convective available potential energy and you can also predict if
there is any chance for tornadoes, heavy rainfall that can cause floods.
Cape Value is use to maps:
What we see here in the picture, is a map of Africa with the Cape value of Monday 15
December 2008. We see a brown spot, which is an area with a CAPE value of 2500 and more.
The area is very unstable. There a thunderstorms and a lot of rain. But that is very normal for
a rainforest. The lines show the rainfall in mm.
We can see a clear link to the rainfall and the CAPE value. The CAPE is a very important
thing to predict rainfall in areas. So the link is, the higher the CAPE value, the higher the
chance of thunderstorms, more rainfall, hail and if the CAPE value is above 3500 there is
even a chance of tornadoes.
CAPE value in context to Buoyancy:

The context to Buoyancy is between the negative and positive areas of the air layers. In the
picture here below the situation is drawn. You see a negative area (the lines in the triangles)
and the positive areas (the plus signs in the triangles). Moreover, the isobars and the isotherms
are shown. The isotherms define places with the same average temperature. This picture is a
picture of the
Troposphere and shows
that the higher the isobars
are, the higher you are in
the troposphere.
The buoyancy is also a
perfect indicator to value
the CAPE. With the
connection between the
Buoyancy and the
convective available
potential energy you can
predict the convection of
a storm system. This
convection is predicted
by the positive and
negative air layers and the
possibility of convection
that the storm could
develop.
The positive air layers
show lots of convection
and ascending air. This is
one of the important
things to develop heavy
storms or even tornadoes.
The letters in the picture
are the levels of
condensation. I am not going any further into the letters, because this becomes too difficult.

CAPE value is very important. But without the Buoyancy of the storm, you are nowhere,
because you can’t predict the storm without the positive and negative air layers of the
buoyancy.
Sources:

http://www.wyckoffschools.org/eisenhower/teachers/chen/atmosphere/images/layers_000.gif
http://www.tornadochaser.net/cape.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/forcesofnature/gfx/tornado-cp-3185295-392.jpg
http://www.zamg.ac.at/docu/Manual/SatManu/Cases/040127/images/plcs00k.gif
http://wxmaps.org/pix/sa.pw.html
http://maddoginthecity.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/tornadoes2.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/B_and_LCL-LFC.jpg