RELAMPAGO

Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And

Meso-scale/micro-scale Processes with Adaptive

Ground Observations (translates to lightning flash

in Spanish and Portuguese)

June 2014

South American countries, particularly Argentina and South American countries, particularly Argentina and Brazil, are making large investments in weather Brazil, are making large investments in weather observing and forecasting technology and observing and forecasting technology and infrastructure to support their growing populations infrastructure to support their growing populations and economies, yet fundamental knowledge is and economies, yet fundamental knowledge is lacking about the regional meteorology, prediction, lacking about the regional meteorology, prediction, and required observational, prediction, and modeling and required observational, prediction, and modeling approaches.approaches.approaches.approaches.

The high frequency of convective initiation and The high frequency of convective initiation and upscale growth in Subtropical South America makes upscale growth in Subtropical South America makes it an ideal natural laboratory to study these processes it an ideal natural laboratory to study these processes near complex terrain, where multiscale models suffer near complex terrain, where multiscale models suffer in skill.in skill.

RELAMPAGO 2018-2019 (working closely with CACTI) is an international project...

● to study intense continental convective systems in subtropical South America

● to understand their interactions with local and regional with local and regional meteorology, aerosols, topography, and land-atmosphere interactions

● to improve severe storm hazard prediction

● to place extreme continental convection in context with regional and global climate

• Urbana-ChampaignDenver •

Córdoba • • Santa Fé

¿Why Argentina?

Mendoza •

High frequency of initiation of organized convection

Vidal (2014)PhD Dissertation

Severe hailnear Mendoza

Severe hail/Tornadoes/Flash Flooding nearSierras de Córdoba

RELAMPAGO + CACTIContributions

NSF (US)

• S-PolKa• 3 DOWs• 1200 Soundings + Expendables, 5 sounding

DOE (US)CACTI

AMF-1 (cloud/profiling suite, aerosol measurements)C-SAPR2

NASA (US)

DisdrometersRain gauges

SMN (Argentina)

C-Band DP op network

Mobile soundings

INPE/FAPESP(Brazil)

Mobile X-Band DP radarPrecip/profiling supersiteLightning sounding

vehicles• 3 Mesonetvehicles• Pods• WV-DIAL LIDAR• 15 ISFS/ meteorological stations/disdrometers

C-SAPR2

G-I (microphysical and aerosol aircraft) TBD

NOAA (US)

Lightning mapping arrayField mills

S-Band/449 Profilers (Proposed)

soundings

Enhancement of operational radiosondes

Distrometers + rainfall

Lightning mapping arraySticknetS-Band DP radars downstream

Science Focus Areas

● Theme 1: Convective lifecycle● Theme 2: Microphysics and aerosols● Theme 3: Electrification● Theme 4: Severe weather (winds, hail, ● Theme 4: Severe weather (winds, hail,

tornadoes, flooding)● Theme 5: Hydrometeorology/land surface,

flooding● Theme 6: Nowcasting and forecasting,

societal impacts

RELAMPAGO Timeline

RELAMPAGO-HYDRO

CACTI-EOP

RELAMPAGO-IOPs

CACTI-IOPs

Jun2018

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan2019

Feb Mar Apr May

Operational Radar Network

Córdoba

Santiago delEstero

Paraná

Concordia

SanMartín(S/X Band)

Santiago(BR)

ResistenciaBernardo de Irigoyen

Ezeiza

Pergamino

Anguil

SanRafael

Tunuyán

C-Band Dual-pol

C-Band Doppler

S-Band Doppler

S-Band non-Doppler

0.5° beam blockage for existing radars indicated by white areas within range rings

Doppler on WheelsMobile Radars

Córdoba

Salta

Resistencia

Uruguaiana

Mendoza

Antofogasta

RELAMPAGO + CACTI Surface and Upper-Air Network

AMF-1

DOEWEST

ChilePODS +Mesonet

Pilar

RAOBsSurface stations:SMN surface stationsBoard of Cereals, Córdoba ProvinceUniversidad de La PuntaDACC, Mendoza Province

Ezeiza

SantoDomingo

Santa Rosa

AMF-1Mesonet

How will S-PolKa and the DOW radars be operated to accomplish these science objectives?

● DOWS will provide dual polarization data, but be operated primarily in dual-Doppler scanning modes (volume scanning, 5 minute refresh)

● C-band Argentinian radars (and C-SAPR2) will suffer from attenuation and backscatter differential phase effects, amount of real-time scan control?

● S-PolKa can help with calibration and algorithm development for C-Band radars, critical in hail, large drops, and heavy precipitation

● Provide RHIs, QPE, µphys and cloud liquid water/water vapor retrievals● Provide RHIs, QPE, µphys and cloud liquid water/water vapor retrievals

Example of a squall line in Parana. Strong C-Band attenuation case.

Mobile sampling strategies – Under the umbrella of fixed observations

Upscale growth/backbuilding

“Flooding happens where it rains the hardest for the longest”--Dr. Chuck Doswell, Retired NSSL

System propagation important for flooding hazard, in addition to instantaneous precipitation rates

Storm mode, convective core Storm mode, convective core propagation, as well as preferred locations of new updrafts important

Cold pools are important forcing mechanisms for convective maintainence, propagation, and triggering of new convective cores

What environmental factors combine for heavy precipitation production?

Hei

gh

t

+

+

x

x

Dual-wavelength humidity profile

Sounding

Cloud LWC

Cloud LWC

Moisture observations from new remote sensing observations and traditional observations to examine moisture variability, convective initiation and meso-convective scale structures Sounding

25 km

Sounding

Hei

gh

t

+

+

+

x

Near-surface humidity from refractivityWVDIAL, MW profiler,NOAA radar wind profilers

x x x xx x x mesonet/sticknet

aerosol

water vapor

NCAR WVDIAL

Lightning in RELAMPAGO

• GOES-R GLM validation and science (recommendation that GOES-R becomes GOES-E)

• Demonstrate use of real time lightning information for nowcastinginformation for nowcasting

• Documents thunderstorm environments, allowing investigation of link between pre-storm environment and subsequent electrification (e.g., anomalous/inverted charge structures common in dry, high-cloud-base environments)

• Provides validation dataset for thunderstorm electrification models Courtesy S. Goodman

Gracias Preguntas?

Informatión de contactoProf. Steve NesbittUniversity of Illinoissnesbitt@illinois.edu

Prof. Paola SalioUBA/CIMA/CONICETsalio@cima.fcen.uba.ar