Scientific Program Overview (SPO): Remote sensing of Electrification, Lighting, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO)

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This is a scientific planning overview (SPO) for planning the RELAMPAGO (Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations) field program from 1 Nov - 15 Dec 2018 in west central Argentina in the general vicinity of the Sierras de Cordoba (SDC) and the Andes foothills near Mendoza. This region arguably has among the most intense convective systems in the world with respect to the frequency of large hail, high storm tops, and extreme lightning activity, yet much remains unknown about the scarcely observed intense convection in this region. RELAMPAGO, leveraging the repeatability of storms in the region, aims to address science questions related to the pre-initiation to initiation, initial organization, and growth/backbuilding stages of storm development, which are poorly understood. New insights into connections between the extreme hydroclimate, high impact weather, and atmospheric dynamical processes in meteorological and geographical settings unique to the these regions can be obtained by bringing together NSF facilities with (1) new operational dual-polarization radars in Argentina, (2) significant contributions from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, NOAA, and NASA, and (3) a complementary funded U.S. Department of Energy major field campaign called Clouds, Aerosols, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI).To address these objectives, the field campaign will obtain targeted, multi-platform observations from the subsurface through the depth of the troposphere throughout the region to characterize the synoptic scale, mesoscale, and convective scale thermodynamic and kinematic environmental evolution during convective events with varying morphologies, evolutions of cloud and precipitation properties, and severe weather characteristics. An adaptive ground-based and aircraft-based network, including mobile mesonets, lightning instruments, soundings, fixed and mobile Doppler/polarization radars (from W- to S- Band), lidars, microwave profilers, and surface flux measurements, will be used to (1) characterize the pre-convective and convective environments, (2) characterize kinematic and microphysical properties of clouds and precipitation, convective outflows, atmospheric electrification, and hydrometeor size distributions and (3) observe hydrometeorological interactions with convective systems in a region of repeatable observations.Intellectual Merit:RELAMPAGO will provide unique observations of atmospheric and surface conditions in a region with substantial terrain and explore a regime of convection not observed comprehensively. RELAMPAGO will form a key part of an observation network that will elucidate the tight connections between the land surface, complex terrain, convective development, and the production of severe weather, role of terrain processes in initiating and developing organized convective systems and altering flows within and above the convective boundary layer, and roles of environmental moisture, aerosols, and instability on the resultant intensity, organization, precipitation, and high impact weather production of deep convective systems. Through its unique configuration of atmospheric profiling and remote sensing capabilities, understanding of processes that impact prediction of natural hazards will be improved.Broader Impacts:The experimental design, focusing on the contrasting factors controlling the initiation and growth of these systems with the global population of convective storms, particularly in the U.S. Great Plains, will improve understanding of, and the ability to predict, severe convective storms worldwide. The extensive set of observations and research conducted will aid current efforts to install new weather radars and regional lightning networks, and modernize the weather and climate prediction infrastructure in South America, in the development of conceptual models of extreme weather events for use by forecasters in South America and globally, and in combination with improved prediction of weather- and hydrological-related hazards, will lead to reductions in future loss of life and property. Education and outreach in several universities and schools in subtropical South America and the U.S., extensive international student and scientist cooperation and involvement in the observation campaign, and a large internet presence through social media and webinars will enhance collaboration and awareness across the Americas as well as train the next generation of scientists and engineers in the Americas.