[ncl-talk] About CAPE and CIN for soundings

[Stavros Dafis]

Dear users,

I am trying to find the Fortran code that calculates CAPE, as I cannot find it
in my libraries (I am using ncl 6.2.0). I want to try and fix the problem with
the excessive CAPE and also find the CIN from sounding data. Is there any ready
program to calculate CIN as the cape_thermo one?

I am plotting real data from soundings and I have also noticed the problem with
CAPE. The LCL calculated by ncl is always lower than the actual one and EL
quite higher.

I do not understand why ncl adjusts the LCL higher than the first guess, as I
saw these lines while debugging the code:


cape.f: LCL pressure: original    915.26794433593750       mb
cape.f: adjusted to    925.00000000000000       mb
cape.f: and lies at level            4


In my data, the actual LCL is at 879mb, but 915mb would be better than 925mb.
Anyway, I need to see the Fortran code to find the problem. Any suggestions on
that? Choose the second guess of LCL?

Furthermore, I would like to propose the following changes at the skewt_func.ncl
code, in order the users to find the LFC and Equillibrium levels, because they
are already calculated but not printed:



  iprnt = 0   ; debug only (>0)
   nlLcl= 0   ; LCL
   nlLfc= 0   ; LFC
 nlCross= 0   ; EL

 cape = cape_thermo(p,tc,plcl,iprnt)       ; (J/kg)

  tpar = cape at tparcel                      ; temp of the parcel
  nlLcl= cape at jlcl
  nlLfc= cape at jlfc
  nlCross= cape at jcross
                                          ; Equillibrium Level
EL_p = p(nlCross)                         ; hPa
EL_z = z(nlCross) /1000                   ; in km
EL = decimalPlaces(EL_z,1,True)
print("EL = "+EL+" km")

LFC_p = p(nlLfc)                         ; LFC in hPa
LFC_z = z(nlLfc) /1000                   ; in km
LFC = decimalPlaces(LFC_z,2,True)
print("LFC = "+LFC+" km")



-- 
Stavros Dafis
MSc student Atmospheric Sciences and Environment
University of Ioannina
LATMOS Laboratoire Atmospheres, Milieux,Observations Spatiales; Versailles,
France.
Tel: +30 2651008499,  Mobile: +30 6970420242
e-mails: sdafis at noa.gr or dafis91 at yahoo.gr or sdafis at cc.uoi.gr
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