Precipitation and Convective Statistics in the Trades: Observations, Simulation and Parameterization

在“海洋积云中的雨”（RICO）实验中，该研究人员将使用研究雷达和仪器飞机的测量结果来表征信风积云场的中尺度和气候尺度特性。与以往依靠预算分析或实地观测的大多数研究不同，这项研究将结合遥感和实地测量，以便描绘整个云场的特征。结果将是一个气候学上有意义的数据集，并补充了几个代表性案例中云场特性的详细文件。科学目标是：(i)确定信风积云的统计上有意义的特征以及这些特征的变化可归因于大尺度强迫（例如，由过往天气系统引起的）；（ii）确定模型，特别是那些依赖于大涡模拟的模型，是否能够再现和解释这些变化；（三）研究降水对云场测量性质的影响。因此，该项目力求利用将在RICO进行的对单个云的详细研究来确定这些云的总体特性，如果要将这些云场的影响纳入中尺度和气候模式，就需要这些云的总体特性。预期的结果是提高对信风云输送水分、能量和动量的认识，并更好地了解如何在天气和气候系统中表示这些影响。该项目还将通过研究生和博士后科学家直接参与该项目和通过RICO研究生系列研讨会，为这一研究领域的研究生和博士后科学家的培训做出贡献。另一个预期的更广泛的影响是开发一个基准数据集，信风积云模型将在本研究和未来的研究中进行测试。这应该是朝着在气候模式中更好地表示这些重要热带地区的总体特征迈出的重要一步。

Within the "Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean" (RICO) experiment, this investigator will use measurements from a research radar and an instrumented aircraft to characterize the mesoscale and climate-scale properties of fields of trade-wind Cumuli. In contrast to most previous studies that have relied either on analyses of budgets or on in situ observations, this study will combine remote sensing and in situ measurements in order to characterize entire fields of clouds. The result will be a climatologically meaningful data set with supplementary detailed documentation of properties of the cloud fields in a few representative cases. The scientific goals are: (i) to determine statistically meaningful characteristics of trade-wind Cumuli and variations in those characteristics attributable to large-scale forcing (e.g., caused by passing weather systems); (ii) to determine if models, especially those that rely upon large-eddy-simulation, can reproduce and explain those variations; and (iii) to investigate the influence of precipitation on the measured properties of the cloud fields. The project thus seeks to use the detailed studies of individual clouds to be conducted in RICO to determine the ensemble properties of such clouds, needed if the influence of such cloud fields are to be incorporated into mesoscale and climate models. The expected result is improved understanding of the transport of moisture, energy, and momentum by trade-wind clouds and better knowledge of how to represent those effects in weather and climate systems.The project will also contribute to the training of graduate students and postdoctoral scientists in this area of research, both through their direct involvement in this project and through the RICO graduate-student seminar series. Another expected broader impact is the development of a benchmark data set against which models of tradewind Cumuli will be tested in this and future studies. This should be an important step toward better representation of the ensemble characteristics of these important tropical regions in climate models.