Collaborative Research: EAGER--Initial Evaluation of Polarimetric Phased Array Radar for the Study of Storm Electrification and Lightning

这项计划将利用新的天气雷达技术，评估云中的小尺度水滴和冰晶对闪电发展的作用。 相控阵雷达是下一代天气雷达技术，可以提供极快的云和降水扫描。 快速扫描能力是检测发生在几秒钟内的关键闪电过程的关键。 该项目的潜在社会影响将是闪电预测的下游改进，这是一个重大的公共安全问题。 该项目还包括计划招募各种学生参与部署和数据分析，从而确保培训下一代科学家，这项研究将使用新的相控阵雷达技术，在非常短的时间尺度上提供雷暴的双极化观测，以研究风暴带电过程。 高的时间分辨率和完整的瞬时垂直数据是至关重要的特征结构，促进闪电启动风暴上升气流附近，描述闪电通道与微物理特征，如冰晶排列签名的相互作用，并探讨雷达信号的直接散射雷达采样体积内的通道。 S波段Horus雷达和C波段PAIR雷达将与RaXPol X波段雷达一起部署在俄克拉荷马州闪电测绘阵列（LMA）网络范围内，在2023年和2024年进行10次部署。 研究人员将进行每80秒重复一次的扫描序列，包括在整个风暴体积上进行风暴尺度的双多普勒扫描，以解决上升气流和下降气流，同时在闪电和涡流时间尺度上交错基本上连续的更新，以提供中尺度背景下的快速时间和详细的空间分辨率。 该团队还将使用多普勒光谱偏振测量方法在分辨率范围内分离水凝物，以研究微物理特性。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 project will make use of new weather radar technology to assess the role that small-scale droplets and ice crystals in clouds have on the development of lightning. Phased-array radar is a next-generation technology for weather radar that can provide extremely fast scanning of clouds and precipitation. The fast-scanning ability is key for detecting key lightning processes that happen on the order of seconds. The potential societal impact of this project would be the downstream improvement in lightning prediction, a significant public safety problem. The project also includes plans for recruiting a diverse cohort of students to participate in the deployment and data analysis, thereby ensuring training of the next generation of scientists.This study will use new phased array radar technology to provide dual-polarization observations of thunderstorms at very short time scales to study the storm electrification process. High temporal resolution and full instantaneous vertical data are critical to characterizing the structures which promote lightning initiations near storm updrafts, describing the interplay of lightning channels with microphysical features such as ice crystal alignment signatures, and exploring the direct scattering of radar signals from channels within radar-sampled volumes. The S-band Horus radar and the C-band PAIR radar will be deployed alongside the RaXPol X-band radar within reach of the Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) network in 10 deployments across 2023 and 2024. The researchers will conduct a scan sequence repeating every 80 s, including storm-scale dual-Doppler scans over the full storm volume, to resolve updrafts and downdrafts, while interleaving essentially continuous updates at lightning and eddy time scales to provide fast-time and detailed spatial resolution within mesoscale context. The team will also separate hydrometeors within resolution volumes using Doppler spectral polarimetry methods to study microphysical properties.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.