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

海洋向内陆对流启动环境过渡（MITTEN-CI）活动的目标是发展迄今为止最彻底的了解近地表热力学和风廓线结构的过渡，这是由于五大湖沿海环境中海洋空气的内陆运动造成的，以及由此对雷暴发展的影响。考虑到有相当一部分人口生活在沿海地区，了解这种转变及其对雷暴的影响具有重大的广泛影响。提出了针对近岸雷暴发展和近地表温度、湿度和风力剖面演变的新方面的假设，这些方面受到的关注相对较少，并且能够在大范围的背景天气模式下进行操作，从而使运动目标的成功概率很高。MITTEN-CI活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）描述湖上热力学和运动学剖面的时间演变特征，此外，还将使用沿120公里海岸垂直样带的仪器对陆地上的边界层空间和时间变化进行彻底采样，该样带包括六个通量塔、两个移动中网、多个无线电探空仪发射场、一个多普勒激光雷达和两个移动ka波段多普勒雷达。这些数据将使假设检验成为可能，从而对中纬度沿海地区导致对流启动（CI）或其失效的一系列尺度上的过程产生新的认识。有待研究的沿海对流环境和对流CI的具体方面包括湖微风MAHTEs（具有高theta-e的中尺度气团）的发展，即湖微风锋面（LBFs）冷侧的不稳定极大值，弥漫性LBFs嵌入天气尺度陆上气流并影响对流CI的可能性，LBF欠涡对对流CI的独立影响和通过与水平对流滚的相互作用，RKW理论与LBF对流CI的关系，以及夹带对LBF热力学、结构和传播的影响。预计将获得与MAHTE发展相关的重要新知识，并将为其他类型的前沿边界的MAHTE发展提供更广泛的研究，这些研究在没有游牧运动的情况下更难以研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.