Collaborative Research: WINTRE-MIX: Winter Precipitation Type Research Multi-scale Experiment

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During near-freezing weather conditions, a diversity of surface precipitation types are possible, including: rain, drizzle, freezing rain, freezing drizzle, wet snow, ice pellets, and snow. Such near freezing precipitation affects wide swaths of the United States and Canada, impacting aviation, road transportation, power generation and distribution, winter recreation, ecology, and hydrology. This award is for a field experiment, named the Winter Precipitation Type Research Multi-scale Experiment (WINTRE-MIX) with the overarching goal of improving understanding of how a variety of processes influence the variability and predictability of the type and amount of precipitation that falls during winter weather events. The project has direct societal impact through the potential for improved forecasting of these events. Additionally, the project will have significant student involvement, public outreach events, and citizen science participation.The WINTRE-MIX campaign will be conducted in southern Quebec, Canada and northern NY and VT in the United States. The Canadian National Research Council Convair-580 research aircraft and the University of Illinois mobile radars will be deployed along with a host of surface-based instrumentation in February and March of 2022 to make observations that can be used to determine the thermodynamic, dynamic, and microphysical processes that interact to determine near-freezing precipitation type. More specifically, the project has three overarching scientific questions that will be addressed using observations, analysis, and modeling: 1) How do mesoscale dynamics modulate near-freezing precipitation, 2) How do microscale processes modulate near-freezing precipitation, and 3) How do multi-scale processes combine to determine the predictability of near-freezing precipitation?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.