Collaborative Research: Maritime to Inland Transitions Towards ENvironments for Convection Initiation (MITTEN CI)

海洋向内陆向对流启动环境的过渡(MITTEN-CI)运动的目标是最彻底地了解五大湖沿岸环境中海洋空气向内陆移动引起的近地表热力和风廓线结构的过渡，以及由此对雷暴发展的影响。考虑到生活在沿海地区的相当大一部分人口，了解这种过渡及其对雷暴的影响具有重大而广泛的影响。假设是针对近岸雷暴发展和近地表温度、湿度和风廓线演变的新方面而开发的，这些新方面的温度、湿度和风廓线受到的关注相对较少，并能够在广泛的背景天气模式下进行操作，从而极有可能实现活动目标。Mitten-CI行动将产生一个广泛的数据集，该数据集将使用无人驾驶飞机系统(UAS)来描述湖上热力和运动学廓线的时间演变，此外，还将使用沿120公里长的海岸垂直断面的仪器对陆地上的边界层空间和时间变异性进行彻底采样，该剖面包括六个通量塔、两个移动介子、多个无线电探空仪发射场、一部多普勒激光雷达和两部移动式Ka波段多普勒雷达。这些数据将使假设检验成为可能，这将导致对各种尺度上的过程有新的认识，这些过程导致中纬度沿海地区对流的启动或失败。沿海对流环境和CI的具体研究内容包括：湖风MAHTE(具有高θ-e的中尺度气团)的发展，即湖风锋(LBF)冷侧的不稳定极大值，扩散LBF存在的可能性以及独立地或通过与水平对流卷的相互作用对CI的影响，RKW理论与LBF CI的关系，以及卷吸对LBF热力学、结构和传播的影响。与MAHTE开发相关的过程的重要新知识有望获得，并将为其他类型的前沿边界的MAHTE开发提供更广泛的研究，如果没有游牧运动，这些研究将更加困难。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of the Maritime to Inland Transitions Towards ENvironments for Convection Initiation (MITTEN-CI) campaign is to develop the most thorough understanding to date of transitions in near-surface thermodynamic and wind profile structure due to inland movement of marine air in the Great Lakes coastal environment, and resultant impacts on thunderstorm development. Understanding such transitions and their implications for thunderstorms has substantial broader impacts, given the significant portion of the human population that lives in coastal areas. Hypotheses are developed to target novel aspects of near-shore thunderstorm development and evolution of near-surface profiles of temperature, humidity, and wind that have received relatively little attention and enable operations under a wide range of background weather patterns, resulting in a high probability of success in the campaign’s goals.The MITTEN-CI campaign will result in an extensive dataset that characterizes the temporal evolution of over-lake thermodynamic and kinematic profiles using Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS), in addition to thorough sampling of boundary layer spatial and temporal variability over land using instrumentation along a 120 km shore-perpendicular transect with six flux towers, two mobile mesonets, multiple radiosonde launch sites, a Doppler LiDAR, and two mobile Ka-band Doppler radars. These data will enable hypothesis testing that will result in new knowledge of processes across a range of scales that result in convection initiation (CI) or failure thereof in midlatitude coastal regions. Specific aspects of coastal convective environments and CI to be investigated include development of lake-breeze MAHTEs (mesoscale airmasses with high theta-e), i.e., instability maxima on the cool side of lake-breeze fronts (LBFs), the potential for diffuse LBFs to exist embedded within synoptic-scale onshore flow and influence CI, LBF misovortex influence on CI both independently and through interactions with horizontal convective rolls, RKW theory’s relation to LBF CI, and the influence of entrainment on LBF thermodynamics, structure, and propagation. Significant new knowledge of processes related to MAHTE development is expected and will inform broader research on MAHTE development in other types of frontal boundaries which are more difficult to study without a nomadic campaign.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.