Convective available potential energy ($\mathrm{CAPE}$)

Convective available potential energy is the positive buoyancy work per unit mass available to a rising air parcel, $\mathrm{CAPE}=\int Bdz$ over positive-buoyancy layers above free convection. In the ideal lossless parcel model $w_{\max }=\sqrt{2\mathrm{CAPE}}$. Negative-buoyancy work is treated separately as convective inhibition.