Precipitation and Convective Statistics in the Trades: Observations, Simulation and Parameterization

在“海洋积云中的雨”(RICO)实验中，该调查员将使用研究雷达和一架仪器飞机的测量结果来描述信风积云区域的中尺度和气候尺度特性。与以往大多数依赖预算分析或现场观测的研究不同，这项研究将把遥感和现场测量结合起来，以确定整个云场的特征。其结果将是一个在气候上有意义的数据集，并在几个典型案例中补充详细的云场属性记录。科学目标是：(1)确定在统计上有意义的信风积云特征以及可归因于大范围强迫(例如，由经过的天气系统造成)的这些特征的变化；(2)确定模型，特别是依靠大涡模拟的模型，是否能够再现和解释这些变化；(3)调查降水对云场测量特性的影响。因此，该项目寻求利用将在RICO进行的个别云的详细研究来确定这种云的整体性质，这是将这种云场的影响纳入中尺度和气候模式所必需的。预期的结果是更好地了解信风云的水汽、能量和动量的传输，以及更好地了解如何在天气和气候系统中表现这些影响。该项目还将通过直接参与该项目和通过RICO研究生研讨会系列，促进对研究生和博士后科学家在这一研究领域的培训。另一个预期的更广泛的影响是开发一个基准数据集，在本次和未来的研究中将对照信风积云模型进行测试。这应该是朝着在气候模型中更好地表示这些重要热带地区的总体特征迈出的重要一步。

Within the "Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean" (RICO) experiment, this investigator will use measurements from a research radar and an instrumented aircraft to characterize the mesoscale and climate-scale properties of fields of trade-wind Cumuli. In contrast to most previous studies that have relied either on analyses of budgets or on in situ observations, this study will combine remote sensing and in situ measurements in order to characterize entire fields of clouds. The result will be a climatologically meaningful data set with supplementary detailed documentation of properties of the cloud fields in a few representative cases. The scientific goals are: (i) to determine statistically meaningful characteristics of trade-wind Cumuli and variations in those characteristics attributable to large-scale forcing (e.g., caused by passing weather systems); (ii) to determine if models, especially those that rely upon large-eddy-simulation, can reproduce and explain those variations; and (iii) to investigate the influence of precipitation on the measured properties of the cloud fields. The project thus seeks to use the detailed studies of individual clouds to be conducted in RICO to determine the ensemble properties of such clouds, needed if the influence of such cloud fields are to be incorporated into mesoscale and climate models. The expected result is improved understanding of the transport of moisture, energy, and momentum by trade-wind clouds and better knowledge of how to represent those effects in weather and climate systems.The project will also contribute to the training of graduate students and postdoctoral scientists in this area of research, both through their direct involvement in this project and through the RICO graduate-student seminar series. Another expected broader impact is the development of a benchmark data set against which models of tradewind Cumuli will be tested in this and future studies. This should be an important step toward better representation of the ensemble characteristics of these important tropical regions in climate models.