CAREER: Research on Convective Snow in the Central United States

将使用标准气象平台（例如，雷达探测网络、国家闪电探测网络）、实地观测（综合探测系统、雪晶收集）以及数值模型模拟。 该项目将开始，通过检查存档的雷暴个例（1961-1990年）来了解产生雷暴的天气环境。随后的几年将在野外进行，追踪雷暴事件，以便直接对它们进行采样，并试图确定产生雷暴的云的一些基本特征。 对雷暴雪事件的直接观测不仅可以揭示云的微物理结构，还可以揭示伴随它们的稳定性和垂直速度廓线。 数值天气预报模式的模拟将有助于阐明天气尺度和中α尺度垂直运动的强迫机制。在学术上，这个项目将寻求利用学生对危险现象的自然魅力：在这个例子中，闪电和大雪。 将为地区高中学生举办夏季讲习班，向他们介绍气象和预报。 密苏里大学哥伦比亚分校的本科生将在首席研究员教授的课程中介绍该项目，并将每天的雷雨预报作为实验室练习纳入课堂。 在冬季，夏季研讨会的高中参与者将被邀请回来观察本科生对雷暴雪的常规预报和展望的创造，从而超越了以前的中学生夏季气象学课程。 研究生参与者将冒险进入现场进行雷雪发生的观测。 这样，他们将在操作和使用现场雷达探测仪和剖面仪设备以及进行地面观测和收集雪晶方面获得独特的经验。 这些活动将为研究生提供从实地数据收集到实验室质量控制再到最终数据集分析的各种研究经验。拟议工作的更广泛影响不仅限于科学出版物或会议，或在项目期间接受指导的学生，还包括通过改善对危险冬季天气的预测来更好地保护人口。

Thundersnow events (snow attended by lightning and thunder) will be examined with a multiscale approach using standard meteorological platforms (e.g., rawinsonde network, National Lightning Detection Network), observations in the field (integrated sounding system, snow crystal collection), and with numerical model simulations. The project will begin by examining archived cases (1961-1990) of thundersnow to understand the synoptic environment that produces it. Ensuing years will be spent in the field, in pursuit of thundersnow events in order to sample them directly and attempt to determine some fundamental characteristics of the cloud that engenders them. Direct observations of thundersnow events will reveal not only cloud microphysical structure, but also the stability and vertical velocity profiles that accompany them. Simulations with the numerical weather prediction models will help to clarify the synoptic scale and meso-alpha scale forcing mechanisms for vertical motion.Academically, this project will seek to capitalize on students' natural fascination with dangerous phenomena: in this case, lightning and heavy snowfall. Summer workshops will be held for area high school students to introduce them to meteorology and forecasting. Undergraduates at the University of Missouri-Columbia will be introduced to the project in courses taught by the Principal Investigator with daily forecasting of thundersnow incorporated into the class as a lab exercise. During the winter season, the high school participants from the summer workshop will be invited back to observe the creation by undergraduates of the routine forecasts and outlooks for thundersnow, thus reaching beyond prior summer programs in meteorology for secondary school students. The graduate student participants will venture into the field to perform the observations of thundersnow occurrence. In so doing, they will acquire unique experience in the operation and utility of in-situ rawinsonde and profiler equipment, as well as surface observations and snow crystal collection. These activities will provide the graduate students with the gamut of research experience, from data collection in the field, to quality control in the lab, to the analysis of the final datasets.The broader impacts of the proposed work are not limited to scientific publications or conferences, or the students who are mentored during the Project, but include a better-protected population through improved forecasting of dangerous winter weather.