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Title: The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) sounding network: operations, processing and analysis

Abstract

The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) took place during the spring of 2011 centered in north-central Oklahoma, USA. The main goal of this field campaign was to capture the dynamical and microphysical characteristics of precipitating convective systems in the US Central Plains. A major component of the campaign was a six-site radiosonde array designed to capture the large-scale variability of the atmospheric state with the intent of deriving model forcing data sets. Over the course of the 46-day MC3E campaign, a total of 1362 radiosondes were launched from the enhanced sonde network. This manuscript provides details on the instrumentation used as part of the sounding array, the data processing activities including quality checks and humidity bias corrections and an analysis of the impacts of bias correction and algorithm assumptions on the determination of convective levels and indices. It is found that corrections for known radiosonde humidity biases and assumptions regarding the characteristics of the surface convective parcel result in significant differences in the derived values of convective levels and indices in many soundings. In addition, the impact of including the humidity corrections and quality controls on the thermodynamic profiles that are used in the derivation of a large-scale modelmore » forcing data set are investigated. The results show a significant impact on the derived large-scale vertical velocity field illustrating the importance of addressing these humidity biases.« less

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
OSTI Identifier:
1198011
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1209105; OSTI ID: 1785912; OSTI ID: 1808772
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-696369; LLNL-JRNL-738923
Journal ID: ISSN 1867-8548
Grant/Contract Number:  
DOE-AC02-98CH10886; AC02-98CH10886; AC02-06CH11357; AC52-07NA27344; NNX13AF74G
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online) Journal Volume: 8 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1867-8548
Publisher:
Copernicus Publications, EGU
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; geosciences

Citation Formats

Jensen, M. P., Toto, T., Troyan, D., Ciesielski, P. E., Holdridge, D., Kyrouac, J., Schatz, J., Zhang, Y., and Xie, S.. The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) sounding network: operations, processing and analysis. Germany: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.5194/amt-8-421-2015.
Jensen, M. P., Toto, T., Troyan, D., Ciesielski, P. E., Holdridge, D., Kyrouac, J., Schatz, J., Zhang, Y., & Xie, S.. The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) sounding network: operations, processing and analysis. Germany. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-421-2015
Jensen, M. P., Toto, T., Troyan, D., Ciesielski, P. E., Holdridge, D., Kyrouac, J., Schatz, J., Zhang, Y., and Xie, S.. Tue . "The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) sounding network: operations, processing and analysis". Germany. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-421-2015.
@article{osti_1198011,
title = {The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) sounding network: operations, processing and analysis},
author = {Jensen, M. P. and Toto, T. and Troyan, D. and Ciesielski, P. E. and Holdridge, D. and Kyrouac, J. and Schatz, J. and Zhang, Y. and Xie, S.},
abstractNote = {The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) took place during the spring of 2011 centered in north-central Oklahoma, USA. The main goal of this field campaign was to capture the dynamical and microphysical characteristics of precipitating convective systems in the US Central Plains. A major component of the campaign was a six-site radiosonde array designed to capture the large-scale variability of the atmospheric state with the intent of deriving model forcing data sets. Over the course of the 46-day MC3E campaign, a total of 1362 radiosondes were launched from the enhanced sonde network. This manuscript provides details on the instrumentation used as part of the sounding array, the data processing activities including quality checks and humidity bias corrections and an analysis of the impacts of bias correction and algorithm assumptions on the determination of convective levels and indices. It is found that corrections for known radiosonde humidity biases and assumptions regarding the characteristics of the surface convective parcel result in significant differences in the derived values of convective levels and indices in many soundings. In addition, the impact of including the humidity corrections and quality controls on the thermodynamic profiles that are used in the derivation of a large-scale model forcing data set are investigated. The results show a significant impact on the derived large-scale vertical velocity field illustrating the importance of addressing these humidity biases.},
doi = {10.5194/amt-8-421-2015},
journal = {Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online)},
number = 1,
volume = 8,
place = {Germany},
year = {Tue Jan 27 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Tue Jan 27 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-421-2015

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Cited by: 28 works
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