  Cold pools are fundamental ingredients of deep convection. They contribute to
organizing the sub-cloud layer and are considered key elements in triggering
convective cells. It was long known that this could happen mechanically,
through lifting by the cold pools' fronts. More recently, it has been suggested
that convection could also be triggered thermodynamically, by accumulation of
moisture around the edges of cold pools. A method based on Lagrangian tracking
is here proposed to disentangle the signatures of both forcings and quantify
their importance in a given environment. Results from a simulation of
radiative-convective equilibrium over the ocean show that parcels reach their
level of free convection through a combination of both forcings, each being
dominant at different stages of the ascent. Mechanical forcing is an important
player in lifting parcels from the surface, whereas thermodynamic forcing
reduces the inhibition encountered by parcels before they reach their level of
free convection.
