Collaborative Research: RAPID--Multi-Scale Investigation into the Storm Processes of the 10 August 2020 Midwest Derecho

2020年8月10日，一场特别强烈的飓风从内布拉斯加州东部到印第安纳州北方产生了广泛的强风破坏，导致爱荷华州估计农业损失38亿美元。Derechos，或由中尺度对流系统（MCS）产生的长期风暴，仍然是一种重要的大气现象，因为它们产生大规模的风破坏区域，从20 - 200公里宽到数百公里长。该奖项将允许多学科科学团队（即，气象科学家、遥感专家、风力和结构工程师）进行高分辨率数值模拟，并在多个空间尺度上进行详细的损害调查，以调查derechos的风暴过程。将强风破坏的详细记录与风暴过程联系起来，可以提供有关derechos极端风力生产和风暴破坏潜力的重要信息，从而提高对严重风暴过程、雷达判读、以及与向公众发出警告相关的风险沟通。2020年8月10日derecho的风暴特征和近地面风流将通过1）高-使用最先进的数值模拟系统作为真实的事件的代理，对事件进行分辨率模拟，以及2）雷达特征信号与无人驾驶航空系统（UAS）数据、卫星图像和地面实况调查的2D和3D分析提供的损坏信息的详细比较。将分析最能描述derecho演变的模拟，以探索导致极端风力产生的事件独特物理特征的机制。破坏性风的大尺度特征对植被和作物的长期损害和derecho的核心通道靠近得梅因和达文波特国家气象局雷达在爱荷华州提供了一个独特的机会，更好地连接损坏信息的速度结构雷达采样。本研究对风害的详细分析将为高分辨率数值模拟提供前所未有的验证数据集。这个异常全面的数据集将用于了解造成极端风灾的物理过程。此外，详细的损害记录还可用于校准未来大风事件中基于卫星的评估，并可用于开发基于植被的额外损害描述符。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

On 10 August 2020, a particularly intense derecho produced widespread high-wind damage from eastern Nebraska through northern Indiana, resulting in 3.8 billion USD in estimated agricultural losses in Iowa. Derechos, or long-lived windstorms produced by mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), remain an important atmospheric phenomenon to understand because they produce large-scale wind damage areas, varying from 20 – 200 km in width to hundreds of kilometers long. This award will allow a multidisciplinary scientific team (i.e., atmospheric scientists, remote sensing experts, wind and structural engineers) to perform high-resolution numerical simulations and detailed damage surveys across multiple spatial scales to investigate storm processes in derechos. Relating detailed documentation of high-wind damage with storm processes can provide vital information on extreme wind production in derechos and storm damage potential, leading to improved understanding of severe-storm processes, radar interpretation, and risk communication associated with warnings to the general public.Storm characteristics and near-surface wind flow of 10 August 2020 derecho will be investigated through 1) high-resolution simulations of the event using a state-of-the-art numerical modeling system as a proxy for the real event, and 2) detailed comparisons of radar signatures to damage information provided by 2D and 3D analyses of unpiloted aerial systems (UAS) data, satellite imagery, and ground truth surveys. Simulations that best depict the evolution of the derecho will be analyzed to explore the mechanisms responsible for the unique physical characteristics of this event that were responsible for the extreme wind production. The large-scale character of the damaging winds over vegetation and crops susceptible to long-term damage and passage of the derecho’s core close to Des Moines and Davenport National Weather Service radars in Iowa provide a unique opportunity to better connect damage information to velocity structures sampled by radar. The detailed analysis of wind damage produced in this study will provide an unprecedented validation dataset for the high-resolution numerical simulations. This unusually comprehensive dataset will be used to understand the physical processes responsible for extreme wind damage. Additionally, detailed damage documentation can also be used to calibrate satellite-based assessments in future high-wind events and could enable the development of additional damage descriptors based to vegetation.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.