Collaborative Research: Radar Observations of Convective Lifecycle near Argentina's Sierras de Cordoba

可以说，世界上最强烈的风暴发生在阿根廷中西部山区。我们目前对该地区风暴的了解主要来自气象卫星，这些卫星提供了宝贵的快照，但缺乏充分了解和预测风暴形成所需的空间和时间细节。Relampago项目(利用自适应地面观测对带电、闪电和中/微尺度过程进行遥感)试图了解这些强烈风暴是如何在西拉斯德科尔多瓦附近引发、发展和造成恶劣天气的。通过使用最先进的地面仪器，对这些风暴整个生命周期以及它们形成的环境进行详细观察，将有助于与美国上空的严重风暴进行比较，以帮助理解和改进对阿根廷和世界各地强对流的预测。该项目由华盛顿大学和科罗拉多州立大学的研究人员参与，包括参与2018年11月1日至12月15日在阿根廷科尔多瓦附近发生的Relampago的实地阶段，以研究哪些因素导致风暴的强烈上升运动，这些风暴如何在山区附近迅速成长为高档，以及这些过程和环境条件与世界上其他风暴强烈、严重的山区相比如何。为了实现这一目标，由固定和移动研究气象雷达、大气探测、闪电阵列和卫星组成的网络将为实现这些科学目标提供必要的测量。这些研究活动还将促进国际合作，并提供机会接触当地和国外的公众，以突出该项目的目标，促进科学，并作为未来几代大气科学家的榜样。卫星研究突出了阿根廷科尔多瓦山脉(SDC)附近强烈对流系统的集中启动和高档发展。Relampago(利用适应性地面观测对电化、闪电和中/微尺度过程的遥感)实地活动的目的是通过利用该区域反复出现的聚焦地形启动，了解导致这一对流生命周期和相关恶劣天气的过程。研究将使用Relampago雷达网，包括由美国国家科学基金会支持的双偏振、多普勒、双波长S-波尔卡雷达，记录这些强烈风暴的整个生命周期，并结合Relampago的环境观测，确定陡峭地形和局部化和大尺度大气流型在SDC附近这些系统快速增长和维护中的相对作用。这项研究的结果将提供对风暴生命周期的第一次连续观察，并将提供一种手段，与其他山区的深层风暴进行比较，以开发概念模型，改进对这些危险事件的全球预测。该项目由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

Arguably the most intense storms in the world occur in mountainous west central Argentina. Our current knowledge of the storms in this region largely comes from weather satellites, which provide valuable snapshots but lack spatial and temporal details needed to fully understand and predict their formation. The RELAMPAGO (Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, and Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations) project seeks to understand how these intense storms initiate, grow, and produce severe weather in the vicinity of the Sierras de Cordoba. By using state-of-the-art ground-based instruments, detailed observations of these storms throughout their lifecycle, and the environment in which they form, will allow for a comparison with severe storms over the U.S. to help understand and improve prediction of intense convection in Argentina and around the world. This project, involving researchers at the University of Washington and Colorado State University, includes participation in the field phase of RELAMPAGO occurring 1 November - 15 December 2018 near Cordoba, Argentina to study which factors lead to intense upward motion in the storms, how these storms rapidly grow upscale near the mountains, and how these processes and environmental conditions compare to other mountainous regions of the world with intense, severe storms. To achieve this goal, a network of fixed and mobile research weather radars, atmospheric soundings, lightning arrays, and satellites will provide the necessary measurements for addressing these science objectives. These research activities will also foster international collaborations and provide the opportunity to reach out to the public, both locally and abroad, to highlight the goals of this project, promote science, and serve as role models for future generations of atmospheric scientists. Satellite studies have highlighted focused initiation and upscale growth of intense convective systems near the Sierras de Cordoba (SDC) in Argentina. The RELAMPAGO (Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, and Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations) field campaign aims to understand the processes responsible for this convective lifecycle and associated severe weather by leveraging the recurring focused topographic initiation of this region. The research will use the RELAMPAGO radar network, including the NSF-supported, dual-polarization, Doppler, dual-wavelength S-PolKa radar, to document the full lifecycle of these intense storms and, with coincident RELAMPAGO environmental observations, determine the relative roles of steep terrain and localized and large-scale atmospheric flow patterns in the rapid upscale growth and maintenance of these systems near the SDC. Results from this research will provide the first continuous view of the storm lifecycle and will provide a means to compare with deep storms in other mountainous regions to develop conceptual models for improving global prediction of these hazardous events. This project is co-funded by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.