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A Storm Safari in Subtropical South America: Proyecto RELAMPAGO

Journal Article · · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
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  1. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
  2. Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  3. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina)
  4. Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States)
  5. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
  6. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
  7. Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, Buenos Aires (Argentina); Comité Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  8. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
  9. Thunderbolt Global Analytics, Huntsville, AL (United States)
  10. Center for Severe Weather Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
  11. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
  12. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Huntsville, AL (United States)
  13. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Atmospheric Science and Global Change Div. (ASGC)
  14. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  15. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  16. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Brazil)
  17. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  18. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos (Brazil)
  19. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

In this article, we provide an overview of the experimental design, execution, education and public outreach, data collection, and initial scientific results from the Remote Sensing of Electrification, Lightning, and Mesoscale/Microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO) field campaign. RELAMPAGO was a major field campaign conducted in the Córdoba and Mendoza provinces in Argentina and western Rio Grande do Sul State in Brazil in 2018–19 that involved more than 200 scientists and students from the United States, Argentina, and Brazil. This campaign was motivated by the physical processes and societal impacts of deep convection that frequently initiates in this region, often along the complex terrain of the Sierras de Córdoba and Andes, and often grows rapidly upscale into dangerous storms that impact society. Observed storms during the experiment produced copious hail, intense flash flooding, extreme lightning flash rates, and other unusual lightning phenomena, but few tornadoes. The five distinct scientific foci of RELAMPAGO—convection initiation, severe weather, upscale growth, hydrometeorology, and lightning and electrification—are described, as are the deployment strategies to observe physical processes relevant to these foci. The campaign’s international cooperation, forecasting efforts, and mission planning strategies enabled a successful data collection effort. In addition, the legacy of RELAMPAGO in South America, including extensive multinational education, public outreach, and social media data gathering associated with the campaign, is summarized.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1831525
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--157120
Journal Information:
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 102; ISSN 0003-0007
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
South America
deep convection
education
hydrometeorology
lightning
severe storms