RAPID: Radar Deployment for RELAMPAGO (Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations)

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides funding for the deployment of the Colorado State University C-band radar to a large field campaign in Argentina. The Remote Sensing Electrification, Lightning and Mesoscale/microscale processes with Adaptive ground observations (known colloquially as RELAMPAGO) experiment is intended to observe some of the most intense thunderstorms in the world. The addition of the C-band radar will help to fill in an observational gap and allow researchers to determine characteristics of precipitation particles in these thunderstorms. This is an international campaign, but the impacts to forecasting severe weather in the United States are significant. The researchers will be able to test whether the models and theories that have been derived for storms in the Great Plains will hold for those in Argentina. If there are differences, that may point to changes that can be made in models to make them more accurate. The RELAMPAGO field campaign will take place in late 2018 near Cordoba, Argentina. The Colorado State University C-band radar will be paired with two other C-band radars to provide coverage of the region downstream from orographic terrain where large thunderstorm complexes initiate. The CSU C-band radar will focus on efforts to understand the intensification and growth of convection and the generation of hazardous convective weather. The deployment will be extended beyond the main field campaign timeline in tandem with the Department of Energy C-band radar in an effort to collect as many cases as possible. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.