Lake Effect Boundary Layer Processes

湖效应雪是由冷空气流过温暖的湖面产生的，以其严重程度和对美国五大湖附近和全球其他地区生活的破坏而闻名。对流边界层是冷气团与地下温暖的地球表面耦合的媒介。造成湖效应暴风雪的对流边界层特别重要，因为它们伴随的云和雪作为示踪剂，在雷达和仪器飞机观测时揭示了边界层的结构和组织。此外，它们是研究雪的形成和生长的有用实验室。该项目将分析来自Lake Snow项目的数据，并将由伊利诺伊大学和北卡罗莱纳州立大学合作开展。来自伊利诺伊大学的首席研究员将利用水分通量的垂直剖面和多普勒雷达风和反射率的分析来更好地描述小尺度对流元素及其云和雪的生长过程。来自北卡罗莱纳州立大学的首席研究员将使用飞机数据来确定与湖效应云中冰粒初始形成相关的条件，并确定云和雪的特征与环境和/或之前的气象条件之间的关系。这项研究的结果将对关注对流的边界层气象学家、对冰核和雪生长感兴趣的云物理学家以及努力预测湖泊效应暴风雪的天气预报员有价值。

Lake-effect snows are produced by cold air flowing over warm lake surfaces and are known for their severity and disruption to life near the Great Lakes of the US and other locations around the globe. Convective boundary layers are the media through which cool air masses are coupled to the warm underlying Earth's surface. Convective boundary layers responsible for lake-effect snowstorms are particularly important because their accompanying clouds and snow act as tracers to reveal the structure and organization of the boundary layer when viewed by radar and instrumented aircraft. In addition, they are useful laboratories for study of the initiation and growth of snow. This project will analyze data from the Lake Snow Project and will be carried out as a collaborative effort between the University of Illinois and North Carolina State University. The Principal Investigator from the University of Illinois will use vertical profiles of moisture fluxes and analyses of Doppler radar winds and reflectivity to obtain a better description of small scale convective elements and their cloud and snow growth processes. The Principal Investigator from North Carolina State University will use aircraft data to identify conditions associated with the initial formation of ice particles in lake-effect clouds and to determine relationships between cloud and snow characteristics and ambient and/or antecedent meteorological conditions. Results from this research will be of value to boundary layer meteorologists concerned with convection and, cloud physicists interested in ice nucleation and snow growth, and weather forecasters striving to predict lake-effect snow storms.