Collaborative Research: Experiment of Sea Breeze Convection, Aerosols, Precipitation and Environment (ESCAPE)

该奖项为德克萨斯州休斯顿地区的观测现场实验提供资金，以研究云和降水及其对环境因素的依赖性，包括被称为气溶胶的小颗粒。 休斯顿地区是一个独特的研究区域，孤立的云和雷暴很常见，附近的墨西哥湾有海风，城市和工业排放有特定的气溶胶来源。 该研究小组将部署研究飞机、地面雷达和各种其他传感器，以表征不断增长的云层及其周围的环境。 这些数据将被分析并纳入数值模型，以回答有关温度，湿度，风和气溶胶在云和降水的形成和发展中的作用的问题。 这项研究将有助于改进对人口密集的沿海地区极端或高影响事件的高分辨率模拟。 这项研究也将与气候模型有广泛的相关性，因为气溶胶/云的相互作用很难模拟。 早期职业研究人员和学生将获得进行观察研究的经验。 外展活动亦会提供机会，提高市民对雷暴和水浸的警觉。 海风对流，气溶胶，降水和环境实验（ESCAPE）计划于2021年6月和7月在休斯顿大都市区进行。 ESCAPE将提供与高分辨率模式共生使用的测量结果，以改善孤立对流单体生命周期的模拟，包括交互式气溶胶，微物理和运动学过程对可观测云，降水和电气化特征的影响。 研究小组计划通过在目标地理区域部署大量仪器，有条不紊地推进对基本对流云过程和气溶胶对这些过程影响的基于观测的理解。 主要的空中平台将是NSF/国家大气研究中心（NCAR）的C-130研究飞机，具有广泛的云微物理测量。 在地面上，PI将协调多个雷达，无线电探空仪，群探空仪和休斯顿闪电测绘阵列。 该运动将与能源部协调部署大气辐射测量移动的设施，并利用休斯顿地区现有的空气质量测量结果。 观测数据将与使用WRF和RAMS的建模相结合，以解决以下科学目标：1）调查气象学、动力学和混合对对流云早期生长阶段气溶胶间接影响的控制，2）表征导致沿海对流开始的环境和物理过程，3）确定成熟的对流上升气流微物理和运动学特性如何与云生命周期早期的那些特性、其启动机制及其母环境的非均匀性相关，4）量化不同气溶胶条件下对流生命周期特性的环境热力学和运动学控制，5）量化如何：a）冷池性质和寿命作为沉淀量和沉淀尺寸分布的函数而变化，以及这些关系是如何被相对湿度调制的，B）气溶胶数浓度对冷池深度和强度的影响是什么，以及c）不同的陆面类型如何决定冷池的消散，6）表征闪电大小和能量如何取决于混合相上升气流的过冷液态水含量、规模和体积的修改，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是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。

This award provides funding for an observational field experiment in the Houston, Texas area to study clouds and precipitation, and their dependence on environmental factors including small particulates known as aerosols. The Houston region represents a unique region of study, where isolated clouds and thunderstorms are common, there is a sea breeze due to the nearby Gulf of Mexico, and there are specific sources of aerosol due to urban and industrial emissions. The research team will deploy research aircraft, ground based radars, and a variety of other sensors to characterize the environment in and around growing clouds. The data will be analyzed and incorporated into numerical models to answer questions about the role of temperature, moisture, winds, and aerosols in the formation and development of clouds and precipitation. This research will help to improve high-resolution simulations of extreme or high-impact events in highly populated coastal regions. The research will also have wide relevance to climate models, where aerosol/cloud interactions are difficult to simulate. Early career researchers and students will gain experience in conducting observational research. Outreach activities will also provide opportunities for enhanced public awareness of thunderstorm and flooding hazards. The Experiment of Sea Breeze Convection, Aerosols, Precipitation and Environment (ESCAPE) is planned for June and July 2021 in the Houston metropolitan area. ESCAPE will provide measurements that will be used symbiotically with high-resolution models to improve simulations of the lifecycle of isolated convective cells, including the effects of interactive aerosol, microphysical, and kinematic processes on observable cloud, precipitation, and electrification signatures. The research team plans to methodically advance observation-based understanding of fundamental convective cloud processes and aerosol impacts on these processes by deploying a host of instruments in a targeted geographic region. The main airborne platform would be the NSF/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) C-130 research aircraft with a wide range of cloud microphysical measurements. On the ground, the PIs would coordinate multiple radars, radiosondes, swarmsondes, and the Houston Lightning Mapping Array. The campaign will coordinate with the Department of Energy deployment of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement mobile facility and make use of existing measurements of air quality in the Houston area. The observational data would be combined with modeling using WRF and RAMS to address the following science objectives: 1) Investigate the control of meteorology, dynamics, and mixing on aerosol indirect effects on the early growth stage of convective clouds, 2) Characterize the environment and physical processes leading to coastal convective initiation, 3) Determine how mature convective updraft microphysical and kinematic properties relate to those earlier in the cloud lifecycle, its initiation mechanism, and heterogeneities of its parent environment, 4) Quantify environmental thermodynamic and kinematic controls on convective lifecycle properties under different aerosol conditions, 5) Quantify how: a) cold pool properties and lifetimes vary as a function of precipitation amounts and precipitation size distributions, and how are these relationships modulated by the relative humidity, b) what is the impact of aerosol number concentration on cold pool depth and intensity, and c) how do different land-surface types determine the dissipation of cold pools, 6) Characterize how the lightning flash size and energy depends on the modification of the supercooled liquid water content, scale and volume of the mixed-phase updraft, and hydrometeor populations.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.