Collaborative Research: Convective Upscale Growth Processes during RELAMPAGO

风暴跨越数百公里，持续数小时到数天，在我们的全球水循环中发挥着重要作用。 在南美洲安第斯山脉以东的亚热带地区，在温暖的月份，95%的降雨都来自这些大型系统，它们也会产生山洪暴发、毁灭性的冰雹和频繁的闪电。在2018年底到2019年初，一个国际科学家团队在阿根廷中部的Sierras de Cordoba山脉附近进行了带电，闪电和中尺度/微尺度过程的遥感与自适应地面观测（RELAMPAGO）实地活动，以研究这些频繁的，有影响力的风暴，并以更高的时间和空间分辨率进行观测。这项活动的初步结果为支持这些风暴的启动和快速发展的条件提供了宝贵的见解，但关于风暴的具体演变及其产生的危险天气仍然存在许多问题。因此，该项目以RELAMPAGO的初步发现为基础，进一步了解风暴迅速变大时发生的过程，以及支持这些过程的条件与世界其他山区经历类似危险条件的条件相比如何。这项研究还允许继续教育和推广机会，通过研究生的培训，国际合作，并通过一个多元化的团队代表。中尺度对流系统（MCSs）的预测是一个挑战，部分是由于对流生命周期的理解和表示的局限性。阿根廷中部靠近Sierras de科尔多瓦山脉的一个地区是全球深层强烈对流的热点，也迅速发展为MCS，产生洪水，冰雹和频繁的闪电。这一地区是RELAMPAGO实地活动的焦点，数据集的初步结果支持了以前基于卫星的对流生命周期推断，并提供了与中层垂直风切变，南美低空急流和地形相互作用在高档增长过程中的作用有关的新发现。这项研究建立在这些结果的基础上，以解决以下总体科学问题：1）对流系统中的微观物理学和运动学如何随着它们的增长而演变？2)哪些天气和中尺度因子支持对流的快速增长，地形如何改变这些因子？RELAMPAGO数据分析、高分辨率模式模拟和再分析数据的结合提供了解决这些问题的手段，并更好地了解MCS的对流高档增长、这些高档增长过程的环境控制，和生产的高闪电率和冰雹在高档增长。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Storms spanning hundreds of kilometers and lasting for hours into days have an important role in our global water cycle. In subtropical South America east of the Andes, 95% of rainfall during the warmer months are attributed to these large systems, which also can produce flash floods, devastating hail, and frequent lightning. In late 2018 into early 2019, an international team of scientists conducted the Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, and Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO) field campaign near the Sierras de Cordoba mountains in central Argentina to study these frequent, impactful storms with observations at higher temporal and spatial resolution. Initial results from this campaign have provided valuable insight into conditions supporting the initiation and rapid growth of these storms, yet many questions remain regarding the specific evolution of the storms and the hazardous weather they produce. Therefore, this project builds off the initial RELAMPAGO findings to further understand the processes occurring within storms as they rapidly grow large and how the conditions that support these processes compare with those in other mountainous regions of the world that experience similarly hazardous conditions. This research also permits continued education and outreach opportunities through training of graduate students, international collaborations, and representation through a diverse team. Prediction of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) is challenged in part by limitations in understanding and representation of the convective lifecycle. A region in central Argentina near the Sierras de Córdoba mountain range is a global hotspot for deep and intense severe convection that also grows rapidly upscale to MCSs producing flooding, hail, and frequent lightning. This area was a focal point for RELAMPAGO field campaign, for which initial results from the datasets supported previous satellite-based inferences of convective lifecycle and contributed new findings related to the role of mid-level vertical wind shear, the South American Low-Level Jet, and terrain interactions in the upscale growth process. This research builds off those results to address the following overarching science questions: 1) How do microphysics and kinematics within convective systems evolve as they grow upscale? 2) Which synoptic and mesoscale factors support rapid upscale growth of convection and how does terrain modify those factors? A combination of RELAMPAGO data analysis, high-resolution model simulations, and reanalysis data provides the means to address these questions and gain a better understanding of convective upscale growth to MCSs, the environmental controls on these upscale growth processes, and the production of high lightning flash rates and hail during upscale growth.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.