Collaborative Research: Convective Processes in the Tropics Across Scales

在热带地区，降雨事件的规模可以从小到大，从小到大（如个别雷暴）。 同时观察或模拟小尺寸细节和大尺寸图案是困难的。因此，云、风暴和降雨的许多方面还没有完全了解。同样重要的是要注意，热带降雨事件不仅在热带地区产生影响，而且还可以激发向北移动到热带地区以外并影响美国大陆的天气模式。这里的研究项目将提高我们对小尺寸细节和大尺寸模式相互作用的理解。项目活动将通过促进发现和理解，同时促进教学，培训和学习，以多种方式造福社会。特别的好处包括：（i）通过培训本科生、研究生和博士后，培养一支有竞争力的STEM劳动力队伍;（ii）向K-12学校推广，让学生熟悉STEM研究，并激励他们从事STEM职业;（iii）通过指导本科生开展研究项目，扩大代表性不足的群体的参与;以及（iv）通过对影响人类的云和降雨过程进行研究，改善社会中个人的福祉，因为更好地理解这些过程有助于改进模拟和预测，并造福于社会。范围的规模。结果，由于仪器的限制，在观测中出现困难，由于计算成本，在模拟中出现困难，并且许多对流现象没有被完全理解。一些例子包括岛屿海岸线和地形对热带降雨日周期的影响，对流耦合赤道波事件和热带岛屿的相互作用，以及夹带和混合过程。对于这些过程的模拟是可行的，同时模拟不同尺度的降水云，最近的初步研究结果将利用自适应网格细化和非基于列的网格。 这些方法允许调查的过程，将是困难的或不可能模拟均匀间隔的笛卡尔grids.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

In the tropics, rainfall events can range in size, from small in size (such as an individual thunderstorm) to very large in size (such as a monsoon). It is difficult to observe or simulate the small-sized details and the large-sized patterns at the same time. As a result, many aspects of clouds, storms, and rainfall are not fully understood. It is also important to note that tropical rainfall events have an influence not only within the tropics, but can also excite weather patterns that move northward out of the tropics and influence the continental United States. The research projects here will improve our understanding of the interaction of small-sized details and large-sized patterns.The project activities will benefit society in several ways through advancing discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning. Particular benefits include: (i) developing a competitive STEM workforce by training undergraduate students, a graduate student, and a postdoc; (ii) outreach to K-12 schools to familiarize students with STEM research and motivate them to pursue STEM careers; (iii) broadening the participation of underrepresented groups by mentoring undergraduate students in conducting research projects; and (iv) improving the well-being of individuals in society by conducting research that is aimed at cloud and rainfall processes that influence humanity, since a better understanding of these processes can help to improve modeling and predictions and benefit society.Moist convective processes in the tropics involve a vast range of scales. As a result, difficulties arise in observations due to instrument constraints and in simulations due to computational cost, and many convective phenomena are not fully understood. Some examples include the influence of island coastlines and topography on the diurnal cycle of tropical rainfall, the interaction of convectively coupled equatorial wave events and tropical islands, and entrainment and mixing processes. For simulations of these processes to be viable while modeling precipitating clouds across scales, recent results of the preliminary studies will be leveraged to use adaptive mesh refinement and non-column-based grids. These methods allow the investigation of processes that would be difficult or impossible to simulate with uniformly-spaced Cartesian grids.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.