Collaborative Research: RAPID--Integration of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) into the Program for Research on Elevated Convection with Intense Precipitation

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Nighttime thunderstorms with heavy rainfall pose a threat to lives and property in the central United States and are a difficult forecasting challenge. A field campaign is planned during the summer of 2015 to study how these thunderstorm complexes form and maintain themselves. This award will augment that campaign by providing observations from an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) platform. The UASs will fly in targeted locations near a frontal boundary and in the vicinity of thunderstorms, making measurements that will be input into a computer model. The overall goal of the project is to improve understanding and forecasting of these hazardous events. In addition, the project will contribute to scientific workforce development through the education and training of a graduate and undergraduate student and the involvement of a number of other students in the field work.The Program for Research on Elevated Convection with Intense Precipitation is an ongoing project with a goal of characterizing the processes responsible for creating environments conducive to the development and maintenance of organized elevated deep convection. UAS observations will be assimilated into the Weather Research and Forecasting model to address the goals of the project by improving the representation of: 1) the airmass upstream of the synoptic scale front, 2) mesoscale lifting mechanisms such as Kelvin-Helmholtz billows and gravity waves within and above the synoptic-scale cold airmass, and 3) the structure of storm-generated outflow within the cold air. The researchers involved in this award will take the lead on assessing the impact of UAS observations on model forecasts and testing strategies for targeting observations to produce the largest gains in forecast skill.