Investigations of the Mesoscale Structure of Continental Winter Cyclonic Storms

由于可能扰乱人类和经济活动，冬季气旋的降水特征具有很大的实用价值和科学价值。众所周知，来自这些系统的最大降水发生在相对较窄的降水带中。在过去的几年里，气旋风暴中降水带的组织受到了极大的关注，人们提出了各种物理机制来解释这些带的特征。以往对冬季气旋风暴条带性的观测研究大多是在沿海地区进行的，这些地区的气象条件与大陆中部地区有很大不同。此前，首席调查人员参与了实地实验，以收集关于这些冬季带状结构的数据。实地项目包括先进的仪器，如多普勒雷达和风廓线系统。首席调查员将继续对这些观测数据进行分析，并扩大他们的研究范围，以包含数值模拟部分。主要目标将是描述降水带的物理特征和中尺度组织，并分离负责这些带的形成和演变的动力机制。

Due to the potential for disruption of human and economic activities, precipitation characteristics of winter-time cyclones are of great practical as well as scientific interest. It has been known for some time that the heaviest precipitation from these systems occurs in relatively narrow precipitation bands. Over the past several years, the organization of precipitation bands in cyclonic storms has received a great deal of attention with a variety of physical mechanisms being proposed to explain the characteristics of these bands. Most of the previous observational studies of bandedness in winter cyclonic storms have been conducted in coastal regions which experience quite different meteorological conditions than the mid-continental area. Previously, the Principal Investigators were involved in field experiments to collect data on these winter-time banded structures. The field projects included advanced instrumentation such as Doppler radar and wind profiling system. The Principal Investigators will continue their analysis of this observational data and expand their research to contain a numerical modelling component. Primary objectives will be to describe the physical characteristics and mesoscale organization of precipitation bands and to isolate the dynamic mechanisms responsible for the formation and evolution of the bands.