AGS-PRF: Warm Rain in Complex Coastal Terrain--Improving Process-level Understanding and Model Representation

沿海地区的地形强迫降水对各种因素很敏感，所产生的降水量仍然难以建模和预测。 在美国的太平洋沿岸，这种降水可能会造成洪水和泥石流，但它也提供了用于农业和人类消费的水资源的很大一部分。 这个博士后研究奖学金项目将提高对地形强迫降水的理解，最终目标是提高预报精度。 该项目将支持早期职业研究人员，同时还包含社区参与计划，以更广泛地提高公众对科学的理解。该项目专门用于分析和建模工作，以提高对降雨微物理过程的理解，特别是在沿海地形地区。 位于沿海华盛顿州的2015-2016年奥林匹克山脉实验（Olympic Mountains Experiment，OLYMPEX）提供了大量关于地形复杂地区降水的数据。 研究人员计划通过使用雷达检索来全面描述奥林匹克山脉离岸和迎风坡上的暖雨过程，以促进对微物理和降水产生的三维理解。 数据的主要来源将是雷达、卫星、测雨仪和雨量计。 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。

Terrain-forced precipitation in coastal regions is sensitive to a variety of factors, and the amount of precipitation that is produced remains difficult to model and forecast. On the Pacific coast of the United States, this precipitation can be a hazard though flooding and mudslides, but it also provides a significant fraction of the water resources used for agriculture and human consumption. This postdoctoral research fellowship project will improve understanding of terrain-forced precipitation with the eventual goal of improving forecast accuracy. The project will support an early career researcher while also containing plans for community engagement to more broadly improve public understanding of science. This project is specifically for an analysis and modeling effort to improve understanding of rain-producing microphysical processes, especially in areas with coastal terrain. The 2015-2016 Olympic Mountains Experiment (OLYMPEX), based in coastal Washington state, provided a wealth of data regarding precipitation over topographically complex regions. The researcher plans to produce a comprehensive description of warm rain processes offshore of and over windward slopes of the Olympic Mountains by using radar retrievals to promote a three-dimensional understanding of microphysics and precipitation production. The main sources of data will be radar, satellites, disdrometers, and rain gauges. A set of case studies of individual events will be conducted, and comparisons made to numerical data from the Weather Research and Forecast model.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.