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Airborne In Situ and Ground-based Polarimetric Radar Measurements of Tropical Convection in Support of CRYSTAL-FACEThis report describes the work performed by the University of North Dakota (UND) under NASA Grant NAG5-11509, titled Airborne In Situ and Ground-based Polarimetric Radar Measurements of Tropical Convection in Support of CRYSTAL-FACE. This work focused on the collection of data by two key platforms: the UND Citation II research aircraft and the NASA NPOL radar system. The CRYSTAL-FACE (C-F) mission addresses several key issues from the NASA Earth System Enterprise, including the variability of water in the atmosphere, the forcing provided by tropical cirrus and the response of the Earth system to this forcing. In situ measurements and radar observations of tropical convection, cirrus clouds and their environment are core elements of C-F. One of the primary issues that C-F is addressing is the relationship of tropical cirrus anvils to precipitating deep convection. The in situ measurements from C-F are being used to validate remote sensing of Earth-Atmosphere properties, increase our knowledge of upper tropospheric water vapor and its distribution, and increase our knowledge of tropical cirrus cloud morphology and composition. Radar measurements, especially polarimetric diversity observations available fiom the NASA NPOL radar, are providing essential information about the initiation, modulation, and dissipation of convective cores and the generation of associated anvils in tropical convection. Specifically, NPOL radar measurements contain information about convective intensity and its vertical structure for comparison with thermodynamic and kinematic environmental measurements observed from soundings. Because of the polarimetric diversity of MOL, statistics on bulk microphysical properties can be retrieved and compared to the other characteristics of convection and associated cirrus anvils. In summary, the central objectives of this proposal were to deploy the UND Citation research aircraft as an in situ sensing platform for this mission and to provide collaborative analyses of the recorded data and to deploy the NPOL radar to observe the characteristics of cirrus and parent convection.
Document ID
20040110746
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Other
Authors
Poellot, Michael R.
(North Dakota Univ. Grand Forks, ND, United States)
Kucera, Paul A.
(North Dakota Univ. Grand Forks, ND, United States)
Date Acquired
September 7, 2013
Publication Date
September 8, 2004
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG5-11509
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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