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一项观测现场实验提供资金，以研究云和降水，以及它们对环境因素（包括被称为气溶胶的小颗粒）的依赖性。 休斯顿地区是一个独特的研究区域，这里常见孤立的云层和雷暴，由于附近的墨西哥湾而有海风，并且由于城市和工业排放而存在特定的气溶胶来源。 研究团队将部署研究飞机、地面雷达和各种其他传感器来表征不断增长的云层内部和周围的环境。 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善人口稠密的沿海地区极端或高影响事件的高分辨率模拟。 这项研究还将与气候模型产生广泛的相关性，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。 外展活动还将提供机会，提高公众对雷暴和洪水灾害的认识。 海风对流、气溶胶、降水和环境实验 (ESCAPE) 计划于 2021 年 6 月和 7 月在休斯顿都会区进行。 ESCAPE 将提供与高分辨率模型共生的测量结果，以改进对孤立对流单元生命周期的模拟，包括交互式气溶胶、微物理和运动过程对可观测云、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，有条不紊地推进基于观测的对基本对流云过程和气溶胶对这些过程的影响的理解。 主要机载平台将是 NSF/国家大气研究中心 (NCAR) C-130 研究飞机，具有广泛的云微物理测量功能。 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。 该活动将与能源部协调部署大气辐射测量移动设施，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，以实现以下科学目标：1) 研究气象、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) 描述导致沿海对流启动的环境和物理过程，3) 确定成熟的对流上升气流微物理和运动学特性与云生命周期早期的微物理和运动学特性、其启动机制及其母体环境的异质性有何关系， 4) 量化不同气溶胶条件下对对流生命周期特性的环境热力学和运动学控制，5) 量化：a) 冷池特性和寿命如何随降水量和降水大小分布而变化，以及这些关系如何通过相对湿度调节，b) 气溶胶数浓度对冷池深度和强度的影响是什么，以及 c) 不同的地表类型如何确定冷池的耗散，6) 描述闪电大小和能量如何依赖于关于修改过冷液态水含量、混合相上升气流的规模和体积以及水凝物群体。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 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.