Diurnal Evolution of Hawaiian Rain Band

由于雨带形成的一致性，夏威夷岛是研究大尺度气流与山区地形相互作用的极好的天然实验室。1985年夏天进行的一次实验和随后的数值模拟研究导致了一种关于大岛东海岸雨带形成机制的新理论。最早的研究表明，雨带的形成主要是由海/陆风、山/谷风和信风之间的相互作用引起的。然而，最近的研究表明，在强信风条件下，岛屿尺度的气流可能更加复杂，并涉及到强信风与地形之间的动力相互作用。作为一个更大的实验的一部分，首席调查人员建议收集数据来检验这一新的假设。除了加深我们对这些雨带的物理学的理解外，与这个过程相关的物理学的简单性应该允许一个独特的机会来验证和测试中尺度数值模式，该模式将具有超出本实验的价值。

Due to the consistency of the formation of rainbands, the Island of Hawaii is an excellent natural laboratory for the study of the interactions of the larger scale flow with mountainous terrain. An experiment held during the Summer of 1985 and subsequent numerical modelling studies have led to a new theory on the formation mechanisms of the rainbands off the east coast of the Big Island. The earliest work indicated that rainband formation was caused chiefly by the interactions between sea/land breeze, mountain/valley breeze and the trade winds. The more recent research, however, indicates that under strong trade wind conditions, the island scale flow may be more complex and involves the dynamical interactions between the strong trades and orography. As part of a larger experiment, the Principal Investigators propose to collect data to test this new hypothesis. In addition to furthering our understanding of the physics of these rainbands, the simplicity of the physics associated with this process should allow an unique opportunity to verify and test a mesoscale numerical model which will have value beyond this experiment.