Collaborative Research: Investigating the Characteristics of Lower Tropospheric Airborne GPS Radio Occultation Observations and Their Impact in Hurricane Studies

合作研究：调查低对流层机载 GPS 无线电掩星观测的特征及其对飓风研究的影响

• 批准号: 1015904
• 负责人: Jennifer Haase
• 金额: $ 32.04万
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-15 至 2013-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1015904&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Investigating; Characteristics; Lower

The hurricane genesis process is known to depend on the degree of vertical instability needed to support deep convection and on mid-level moistening, which modulates convective activity. However, the time variation of moistening is poorly known due to the lack of high temporal and spatial observations during the genesis process. Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) provides area-averaged profiles of refractivity (which depends on moisture and temperature) with very high vertical resolutions that are complementary to dropsondes (pointwise, high vertical resolution) and satellite retrievals (high horizontal but poor vertical resolution). GPS RO is insensitive to heavy precipitation, clouds, and winds. Since the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) became operational, space borne GPS RO data have shown a positive impact on global numerical weather prediction models in the mid to upper troposphere range. However, the use of the data at lower levels has lagged for several reasons: 1) complications due to strong horizontal variations in moisture 2) difficulties in signal tracking and 3) sparse observations within the window of interest for mesoscale systems. This has led to minimal impact in tropical cyclone genesis and forecasting, and minimal impact below mid-troposphere in general. Airborne RO can play a major role in advancing understanding of the hurricane genesis process, because dense targeted measurements are simpler to make with an airborne system than with the existing space borne constellation. The PIs will take advantage of a unique opportunity to collect data during the Pre-Depression Investigation of Cloud Systems of the Tropics (PREDICT) campaign in August 2010, which will allow them to test their progress in data assimilation for the case of tropical cyclone genesis. The data assimilation results should be of great interest to PREDICT investigators because they will provide better initial conditions for high-resolution models for testing new hypotheses concerning the evolution of tropical disturbances into hurricanes. Broader Impacts: The project will promote the use of airborne radio occultation to an expanded research community and serve as a feasibility test for hurricane hunter surveillance missions, potentially resulting in a direct societal benefit from improved operational forecasts. This research activity will educate graduate students and promote the advancement of postdoctoral researchers within an international collaborative structure between Taiwan and US universities. It will strengthen research programs led by four female investigators, who will serve as role models for their students as well as other young female scientists.

众所周知，飓风的起源过程取决于支持对流和中级湿润所需的垂直不稳定性程度，从而调节对流活动。然而，由于创世记过程中缺乏高时空和空间观察，湿润的时间变化是鲜为人知的。全球定位系统（GPS）无线电掩型（RO）提供了面积平均折射率（取决于水分和温度），具有非常高的垂直分辨率，这些分辨率与Dropsondes相互互补（点，高垂直分辨率）和卫星替代（高度水平但较差，但垂直分辨率较差）。 GPS RO对沉淀，云和风不敏感。 由于气象学的星座观察系统，电离层和气候（宇宙）开始运行，因此空间寄生的GPS RO数据对对流层中部至上层范围内的全球数值天气预测模型产生了积极影响。 但是，在较低级别的数据的使用落在了几个原因中：1）由于水分的水平差异很强而引起的并发症2）信号跟踪中的困难和3）中尺度系统感兴趣的窗口内的稀疏观察。这导致了热带气旋起源和预测的影响最小，并且一般而言，在对流层低于对流层以下的影响最小。机载RO可以在促进对飓风创世纪过程的理解中发挥重要作用，因为与现有的空间恒星星座相比，使用空降系统进行密集的靶向测量更容易。 PI将利用独特的机会在2010年8月对热带云系统（预测）活动的抑郁群调查期间收集数据，这将使他们能够测试热带旋风起源的数据同化进度。 数据同化结果应该引起人们的极大兴趣，以预测研究人员，因为它们将为高分辨率模型提供更好的初始条件，以测试有关热带干扰向飓风的发展的新假设。更广泛的影响：该项目将促进空降无线电掩星在扩大的研究社区中的使用，并作为飓风猎人监视任务的可行性测试，可能导致改善运营预测的直接社会利益。这项研究活动将教育研究生，并促进台湾和美国大学之间国际协作结构内的博士后研究人员的进步。它将加强由四名女研究人员领导的研究计划，这些研究计划将为他们的学生以及其他年轻的女科学家担任榜样。