The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E)

Jensen, M. P.; Petersen, W. A.; Bansemer, A.; Bharadwaj, N.; Carey, L. D.; Cecil, D. J.; Collis, S. M.; DelGenio, A. D.; Dolan, B.; Gerlach, J.; Giangrande, S. E.; Heymsfield, A.; Heymsfield, G.; Kollias, P.; Lang, T. J.; Nesbitt, S. W.; Neumann, A.; Poellot, M.; Rutledge, S. A.; Schwaller, M.; Tokay, A.; Williams, C. R.; Wolff, D. B.; Xie, S.; Zipser, E. J.

doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00228.1

Title: The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E)

Abstract

The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), a field program jointly led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program and the NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission, was conducted in south-central Oklahoma during April – May 2011. MC3E science objectives were motivated by the need to improve understanding of midlatitude continental convective cloud system lifecycles, microphysics, and GPM precipitation retrieval algorithms. To achieve these objectives a multi scale surface- and aircraft-based in situ and remote sensing observing strategy was employed. A variety of cloud and precipitation events were sampled during the MC3E, of which results from three deep convective events are highlighted. Vertical structure, air motions, precipitation drop size distributions and ice properties were retrieved from multi-wavelength radar, profiler, and aircraft observations for an MCS on 11 May. Aircraft observations for another MCS observed on 20 May were used to test agreement between observed radar reflectivities and those calculated with forward-modeled reflectivity and microwave brightness temperatures using in situ particle size distributions and ice water content. Multi-platform observations of a supercell that occurred on 23 May allowed for an integrated analysis of kinematic and microphysical interactions. A core updraft of 25 ms^-1 supported growth of hail andmore »« less

Authors:

Jensen, M. P. ^[1]; Petersen, W. A. ^[2]; Bansemer, A. ^[3]; Bharadwaj, N. ^[4]; Carey, L. D. ^[5]; Cecil, D. J. ^[6]; Collis, S. M. ^[7]; DelGenio, A. D. ^[8]; Dolan, B. ^[9]; Gerlach, J. ^[2]; Giangrande, S. E. ^[1]; Heymsfield, A. ^[3]; Heymsfield, G. ^[10]; Kollias, P. ^[11]; Lang, T. J. ^[12]; Nesbitt, S. W. ^[13]; Neumann, A. ^[14]; Poellot, M. ^[14]; Rutledge, S. A. ^[9]; Schwaller, M. ^[10] more »

Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States); NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops, VA (United States)
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States)
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY (United States)
Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
McGill Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada)
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Huntsville, AL (United States)
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL (United States)
Univ. of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND (United States)
Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD (United States); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

Publication Date:: Fri Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2015

Research Org.:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program

OSTI Identifier:: 1245386

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1341974; OSTI ID: 1344549

Report Number(s):: BNL-111943-2016-JA; LLNL-JRNL-680298
Journal ID: ISSN 0003-0007; R&D Project: 2016-BNL-EE630EECA-Budg; KP1701000

Grant/Contract Number:: SC00112704; AC52-07NA27344; AC02-06CH11357

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 43; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-0007

Publisher:: American Meteorological Society

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats


                    Jensen, M. P., Petersen, W. A., Bansemer, A., Bharadwaj, N., Carey, L. D., Cecil, D. J., Collis, S. M., DelGenio, A. D., Dolan, B., Gerlach, J., Giangrande, S. E., Heymsfield, A., Heymsfield, G., Kollias, P., Lang, T. J., Nesbitt, S. W., Neumann, A., Poellot, M., Rutledge, S. A., Schwaller, M., Tokay, A., Williams, C. R., Wolff, D. B., Xie, S., and Zipser, E. J. The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E).  United States: N. p., 2015. 
Web.  doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00228.1.

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                    Jensen, M. P., Petersen, W. A., Bansemer, A., Bharadwaj, N., Carey, L. D., Cecil, D. J., Collis, S. M., DelGenio, A. D., Dolan, B., Gerlach, J., Giangrande, S. E., Heymsfield, A., Heymsfield, G., Kollias, P., Lang, T. J., Nesbitt, S. W., Neumann, A., Poellot, M., Rutledge, S. A., Schwaller, M., Tokay, A., Williams, C. R., Wolff, D. B., Xie, S., & Zipser, E. J. The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E).  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00228.1

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                    Jensen, M. P., Petersen, W. A., Bansemer, A., Bharadwaj, N., Carey, L. D., Cecil, D. J., Collis, S. M., DelGenio, A. D., Dolan, B., Gerlach, J., Giangrande, S. E., Heymsfield, A., Heymsfield, G., Kollias, P., Lang, T. J., Nesbitt, S. W., Neumann, A., Poellot, M., Rutledge, S. A., Schwaller, M., Tokay, A., Williams, C. R., Wolff, D. B., Xie, S., and Zipser, E. J. Fri .  
"The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E)".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00228.1.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1245386.

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@article{osti_1245386,

  title        = {The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E)},

  author       = {Jensen, M. P. and Petersen, W. A. and Bansemer, A. and Bharadwaj, N. and Carey, L. D. and Cecil, D. J. and Collis, S. M. and DelGenio, A. D. and Dolan, B. and Gerlach, J. and Giangrande, S. E. and Heymsfield, A. and Heymsfield, G. and Kollias, P. and Lang, T. J. and Nesbitt, S. W. and Neumann, A. and Poellot, M. and Rutledge, S. A. and Schwaller, M. and Tokay, A. and Williams, C. R. and Wolff, D. B. and Xie, S. and Zipser, E. J.},

  abstractNote = {The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), a field program jointly led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program and the NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission, was conducted in south-central Oklahoma during April – May 2011. MC3E science objectives were motivated by the need to improve understanding of midlatitude continental convective cloud system lifecycles, microphysics, and GPM precipitation retrieval algorithms. To achieve these objectives a multi scale surface- and aircraft-based in situ and remote sensing observing strategy was employed. A variety of cloud and precipitation events were sampled during the MC3E, of which results from three deep convective events are highlighted. Vertical structure, air motions, precipitation drop size distributions and ice properties were retrieved from multi-wavelength radar, profiler, and aircraft observations for an MCS on 11 May. Aircraft observations for another MCS observed on 20 May were used to test agreement between observed radar reflectivities and those calculated with forward-modeled reflectivity and microwave brightness temperatures using in situ particle size distributions and ice water content. Multi-platform observations of a supercell that occurred on 23 May allowed for an integrated analysis of kinematic and microphysical interactions. A core updraft of 25 ms-1 supported growth of hail and large rain drops. In conclusion, data collected during the MC3E campaign is being used in a number of current and ongoing research projects and is available through the DOE ARM and NASA data archives.},

  doi          = {10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00228.1},

  journal      = {Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society},

  number       = 4,

  volume       = 43,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Fri Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2015},

  month        = {Fri Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2015}

}

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