PECAN: Ground Based Lidar and Micro Wave Radiometer and Radiosonde Profiling of the Thermodynamic and Dynamic Structure of the Nocturnal Boundary

该奖项是为参加平原夜间高架对流（PECAN）野外活动而颁发的。PECAN将于2015年夏天在美国中部举行。整个项目的重点是在大平原地区经常发生的夜间雷暴复合体。各种观测系统将用于现场实验，包括多架飞机、移动雷达和地面系统，这些系统可以对低层大气中的风和粒子进行分析。这个单独的项目将为研究人员提供资金，在其中一个战役场地提供仪器。研究人员将把重点放在描述雷暴开始前环境的测量上。这个项目将有助于增加对这些对流系统的了解，以便更好地预测和警告公众危险天气。该项目还将通过让一名学生参与研究来帮助培养下一代科学家。PECAN活动指导委员会确定了四个主要研究课题：1)夜间对流的启动和中尺度对流星团的早期演化；2)钻孔和其他波状扰动；3)夜间中尺度对流系统的动力学和微物理；4)夜间对流发生和演变预报。该项目的目的是对夜间边界层和整个对流层的演变提供定量评估，特别关注其高架对流的潜力。研究人员将在固定PECAN综合探测阵列（PISA）站点之一协调和管理高分辨率水蒸气混合比、温度、气溶胶结构和风廓线的部署和数据采集。具体的仪器包括风激光雷达、探测系统、测高仪和拉曼激光雷达。

This award is for participation in the Plains Elevated Convection at Night (PECAN) field campaign. PECAN will take place in the central United States in the summer of 2015. The focus of the overall project is on overnight thunderstorm complexes that regularly occur in the Great Plains area. A variety of observational systems will be put in place for the field experiment including multiple aircraft, mobile radars, and ground-based systems that can profile the wind and particles in the lower atmosphere. This individual project will provide funding for researchers to provide instrumentation at one of the campaign ground sites. The researchers will focus on measurements that describe the environment prior to the initiation of the thunderstorms. This project will help to increase understanding of these convective systems in order to better predict and warn the public of hazardous weather. The project will also help train the future generation of scientists by involving a student in the research. The steering committee for the PECAN campaign has identified four main research topics to be addressed: 1) Nocturnal convection initiation and early evolution of mesoscale convective clusters; 2) Bore and other wave-like disturbances; 3) Dynamics and microphysics of nocturnal mesoscale convective systems; 4) Prediction of nocturnal convection initiation and evolution. This objective of this project is to provide a quantitative assessment of the evolution of the nighttime boundary layer and entire troposphere with particular attention to its potential for elevated convection. The researchers will coordinate and manage the deployment and data acquisition of highly resolved water vapor mixing ratio, temperature, aerosol structure and wind profiles at one of the Fixed PECAN Integrated Sounding Array (PISA) sites. The specific instrumentation includes a wind lidar, sounding system, ceilometer, and Raman lidar.