Measuring the Effects of Thunderstorms on Upper Tropospheric Trace Gases

9634125作为1996年6月和7月平流层对流层实验：辐射、气溶胶和臭氧实验的一部分，将进行为期一个月的野外实验，以研究闪电形成氮氧化物(NOx)和雷暴传输空气和痕量气体。STERAO的主要设施是NCAR WB57F高空飞机、NOAA WP3D飞机和科罗拉多州立大学的CHILL多参数多普勒雷达。这两架飞机都将收集关于雷暴的气溶胶、痕量气体和运动学数据。然而，这两架飞机都无法穿透雷暴带来的顶端云层。该项目将把北达科他大学的引文喷气式飞机添加到STERAO，以便在项目期间穿透铁砧云。这些被认为是实验的关键部分，因为之前对雷暴中NOx的测量发现，闪电产生的NOx有很大一部分是在顶端云的上部，而不是在云端周围的晴朗空气中，后者将是WB57F采样的区域。如果同样适用于斯特劳的雷暴，由于缺乏穿透铁砧的飞机，可能会使计算闪电产生的NOx变得困难或不可能。引文将携带风和湍流仪器、痕量气体仪器和云微物理探测器。特别是，将使用一种基于化学发光的快速响应仪器来测量NOx。实验数据以及雷达的风暴运动学数据将被用来研究对痕量气体的传输和再分配负责的风暴特征。这些结果还将与拟议的对流再分布的数值云模拟研究进行比较。

9634125 Stith A one month field experiment will be carried out to study the formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) by lightning and the transport of air and trace gases by thunderstorms, as a part of the Stratosphere Troposphere Experiments: Radiation, Aerosols, and Ozone (STERAO) experiment in June and July of 1996. The main facilities of STERAO are the NCAR WB57F high altitude aircraft, the NOAA WP3D aircraft with a tail Doppler radar, and the Colorado State University CHILL multiparameter Doppler radar. Both of these aircraft will collect aerosol, trace gas and kinematic data on thunderstorms. However, neither of the two aircraft are able to penetrate the upper portions of the anvil cloud from thunderstorms. This project will add the University of North Dakota Citation fanjet aircraft to STERAO, so that penetrations of anvil clouds can be made during the project. These are thought to be a critical part of the experiment, because previous measurements of NOx in thunderstorms found that a significant portion of the NOx produced by lightning was in the upper portion of the anvil cloud and not in the clear air around the cloud which will be the region sampled by the WB57F. If the same holds true for thunderstorms in STERAO, the lack of an anvil penetrating aircraft may render calculations of the NOx production by lightning difficult or impossible. The Citation will carry wind and turbulence instrumentation, trace gas instruments, and cloud microphysical probes. In particular, a fast-response chemiluminescence-based instrument for NOx measurements will be used. The experimental data along with storm kinematic data from the radars will be used to study the storm features that are responsible for the transport and redistribution of trace gases. These results will also be compared with proposed numerical cloud modeling studies of convective redistribution.