Collaborative Research: Thunderstorm Influences on Lightning and Atmospheric Chemistry in Oklahoma and North Texas during the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) Project

2012年5月至6月进行的深对流云和化学（DC 3）实地活动是一项多区域、多平台的努力，旨在确定深中纬度大陆对流云及其内在动力学、微物理和电气化过程对对流层上部组成和化学的影响。 该奖项将支持收集和分析表面mesonet数据与闪电映射阵列（LMA）和现场气球携带的测量表征的电气和微物理行为的雷暴系统内的俄克拉荷马州得克萨斯州的DC 3次区域。 这项工作将与NSF/NCAR GV高空喷气机和NASA DC-8平台的机载大气化学测量协调进行。 LMA数据将从现有的俄克拉荷马州阵列和计划中的西德克萨斯州网络中获得。 移动的气球小组将与其他国家科学基金会支持的调查人员密切合作，以获得电场，热力学，气流和水凝物大小，形状，相位和数密度，并解释这些测量范围内的固定-基地和移动的极化雷达观测。这项研究的智力价值来自于对影响过程的更好理解闪电率和结构（即通道长度、结构和三维分布）以及作为风暴生命周期的函数并与风暴运动学/微物理特性相关的风暴尺度电场极性，这将反过来允许改进对闪电诱导的氮氧化物产生和对DC 3计划目标至关重要的相关化学转化的估计。 这些测量还将通过更准确地说明风暴环境和各种水凝物在整个电活动云中的分布，支持改进风暴数值模拟。 更广泛的影响将通过研究生和本科生在实地项目环境中的教育，通过公众宣传，通过帮助业务预报员解释GOES-R卫星预期的总闪电测绘数据，并最终通过提高对自然和人为排放存在时深层大气对流对地球大气化学成分影响的认识。

The Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) field campaign to be conducted May-June 2012 is a multi-regional, multi-platform effort to determine the impact of deep midlatitude continental convective clouds and their intrinsic dynamical, microphysical, and electrification processes upon upper tropospheric composition and chemistry. This award will support collection and analysis of surface mesonet data in tandem with lightning mapping array (LMA) and in-situ balloon-borne measurements characterizing the electrical and microphysical behavior of thunderstorm systems within the Oklahoma-Texas subregion of DC3. This work will be done in coordination with airborne atmospheric chemistry measurements from by a specially instrumented NSF/NCAR GV high-altitude jet and NASA DC-8 platform. LMA data will be obtained from both an existing Oklahoma array and a planned west-Texas network. Mobile ballooning teams will work in close coordination with other NSF-supported investigators to obtain convective updraft profiles of electric fields, thermodynamics, airflow and videosonde measurements of hydrometeor size, shape, phase and number density and to interpret these measurements within the context of both fixed-based and mobile polarimetric radar observations.The intellectual merit of this research derives from improved understanding of processes influencing lightning rates and structure (viz. channel lengths, structure and three-dimensional distribution) and storm-scale electric field polarity as a function of storm lifecycle and in relation to storm kinematic/microphysical properties, which will in-turn allow improved estimation lightning-induced NOx production and associated chemical transformations pivotal to DC3 program objectives. These measurements will also support improved numerical storm simulations through more accurate specification of storm environment and distribution of various hydrometeors throughout electrically active clouds. Broader impacts will accrue through both graduate and undergraduate student education within a field-project setting, via public outreach, by aiding operational forecasters in the interpretation of total lightning mapping data as anticipated from the GOES-R satellite, and ultimately through improved knowledge of the influence of deep atmospheric convection on the chemical composition of earth's atmosphere in the presence of natural and anthropogenic emissions.