Speaker: Dr. Ana Barros
Abstract:
The Intense Observing Period (IOP) Integrated Precipitation and Hydrology Experiment (IPHEx) field campaign took place from 01 May to 15 June 2014 in the southeastern US and centered on the Southern Appalachian Mountains (SAM). IPHEx was one of the ground validation campaigns after NASA’s Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) core satellite launch. Precipitation and aerosol measurements were collected and operated simultaneously at a supersite in the inner mountain region during the IPHEx IOP. Other supersite instrumentation included two radars (W- and X-band), a ceilometer, and a microwave radiometer. The University of North Dakota (UND) Citation Research Aircraft was flown to characterize aerosol and cloud microphysics’ vertical structure, including liquid water content, and hydrometeor-size distributions over the ground sites. This data set offers a great opportunity to perform modeling studies of warm-season cloud formation, leading to precipitation in complex terrain. I will first discuss the regional climatology of clouds and precipitation, including their role in modulating SAM’s hydrology and ecology. Second, we will investigate aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions (ACPI) leveraging IPHEx IOP observations and two different models: (1) a cloud-parcel model to focus on aerosol-cloud interactions, and (2) a numerical weather prediction model—specifically weather research and forecasting (WRF)—to assess the impact of aerosol properties on precipitation over the SAM. Finally, we synthesize and examine our findings’ implications for the measurement and modeling of orographic precipitation processes generally.