Storm tracks are regions of high synoptic activity.
In the northern hemisphere these are located in the Atlantic and Pacific ocean basins. Knowledge of what fundamental dynamical mechanisms are responsible for such organization of activity, including the seeding of synoptic events, is required. Recent idealized work has shown that disturbances with structure, confined in the horizontal and vertical, and located in the low troposphere are most efficient in leading to the formation of deep sustained midlatitude systems. An idealized storm track model set-up, such as that developed by Valdes and Hoskins, will be used to determine the characteristics of seeding events and the impact of physical parameterizations on the seeding mechanisms. Experiments will be performed to investigate the effect of various parameterizations schemes of radiation, surface fluxes, turbulence and moist convection on the model storm evolutions.