Conceptual models of frontal evolution and structure within the curved flow charactestic of extratropical disturbances have grown in number and qualitative complexity, as a result of numerous case-studies of frontal cyclones in a variety of meteorological environments. Keyser will place these models into a formalized, quantitative dynamic context. This will be approached through diagnoses of the vertical circulations, converging and diverging wind patterns, and potential vorticity fields in objectively analyzed observed mesoscale fields, and in short-term numerical forecasts using mesoscale numerical models. Distinctive features of the diagnosed fields will be compared to those implicit in the conceptual models, and to those predicted by idealized dynamical theories. In particular, frontal systems in the central U.S. will be the object of study in order to take advantage of the STORM- Fronts Experiment Systems Test (STORMFEST) to take place in February and March 1992.
