RAPID: Upper-Air Observations over the Far Eastern Pacific (OTREC; ChocoJEX II)

该奖项支持热带东太平洋对流组织（OTREC）实地活动的工作。该活动旨在了解赤道东太平洋和加勒比西南部相邻但不同区域的热带对流云和相关暴雨的形成和发展，沿着它们在中美洲和哥伦比亚中间部分的演变。该活动还研究了东风波的成因和演变，东风波是加勒比和东太平洋每周发生的向西移动的大规模大气扰动（波长约2 000公里）。在nsf.gov/awardsearch网页上，通过关键词“OTREC”搜索，可以找到全套活动奖项。该奖项支持的工作通过在感兴趣的地区增加一个气象站来促进活动。 该站提供连续的地面观测（风、压力、温度等）以及气象气球发射，以记录大气条件的垂直剖面。 它位于哥伦比亚西海岸的Nuqui（6N，77W）。 选择该地点是因为它靠近乔科急流，乔科急流是一种向北流过乔科省的低空急流，从哥伦比亚安第斯山脉的西叉Serrania del Baudo延伸到太平洋海岸。该急流对OTREC很有意义，因为它明显延伸到近海，可能对OTREC研究区的降雨有很大贡献。它也可能在东风波的生成中发挥关键作用。 PI假设安第斯山脉西坡的加热和冷却的日循环解释了近海对流的日循环，尽管时间上存在差异。他们还认为，安第斯地形在组织乔科省和邻近海洋上空的降雨中尺度对流系统方面发挥了作用，努基站将在8月和9月期间运行，当OTREC飞机在东太平洋上空收集数据时，每天发射四次气球（见OTREC第1758513号裁决）。 该站点还补充了OTREC 1759255号奖项下的雨水采样，Nuqui是三个收集站点之一。 该项目也是ChocoJex的后续项目，ChocoJex是一项由哥伦比亚领导的专门针对Choco'jet的实地活动。该奖项下的研究直接解决这些问题，特别关注危险的中尺度对流系统。 这项工作还涉及东风波，它可以产生破坏性的飓风。 此外，该奖项支持美国和哥伦比亚科学家之间的伙伴关系，从而促进国际研究企业的能力建设。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports work on the Organization of Tropical East Pacific Convection (OTREC) field campaign. The campaign seeks to understand the formation and development of tropical convective clouds and associated heavy rainfall in the adjacent but distinct regions of the eastern equatorial Pacific and the southwest Caribbean, along with their evolution over the intervening portions of Central America and Colombia. The campaign also examines the genesis and evolution of easterly waves, large westward-moving atmospheric disturbances (wavelengths of about 2,000 km) which occur on a weekly basis in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The full set of campaign awards is discoverable on the nsf.gov/awardsearch webpage by a keyword search on "OTREC".Work supported under this award contributes to the campaign by adding a weather station in a region of interest. The station provides continuous surface observations (winds, pressure, temperature, etc) as well as weather balloon launches to record vertical profiles of atmospheric conditions. It is located at Nuqui (6N, 77W), on the west coast of Colombia. The site is chosen for its proximity to the Choco' jet, a low-level jet flowing northward over Choco' Province, which extends from the Serrania del Baudo', the western fork of the Andes in Colombia, to the Pacific coast.The jet is of interest to OTREC because it extends significantly offshore and may contribute substantially to rainfall in the OTREC study area. It may also play a key role in the generation of easterly waves. The PIs hypothesize that the diurnal cycle of heating and cooling over the western slopes of the Andes accounts for the diurnal cycle of offshore convection, despite differences in timing. They also argue that the Andean topography plays a role in organizing the rain-bearing mesoscale convective systems found over Choco' Province and the adjacent ocean.The Nuqui station will operate through August and September, with balloon launches four times per day when the OTREC aircraft is collecting data over the eastern Pacific (see OTREC award 1758513). The station is also complementary to rainwater sampling under OTREC award 1759255, for which Nuqui is one of three collection sites. The project is also a follow-on to ChocoJex, a Colombian-led field campaign focused specifically on the Choco' jet.A better understanding of extreme precipitation and its relationship to low-level jets is desirable for societal as well as scientific reasons. Research under this award directly addresses these issues, with a particular focus on hazardous mesoscale convective systems. The work also addresses easterly waves, which can spawn destructive hurricanes. In addition, the award supports a partnership between US and Colombian scientists and thus promotes capacity building in the international research enterprise.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.