Electrification and Lightning in Convective and Mesoscale Precipitation

对流和中尺度降水中的带电和闪电

• 批准号: 1010657
• 负责人: Steven Rutledge
• 金额: $ 70.21万
• 依托单位: Colorado State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1010657&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Electrification; Lightning; Convective; Mesoscale; Precipitation

This award will allow the research team an opportunity to expand on their investigations into atmospheric convection, cloud electrification, and lightning. The three main areas of work are (1) the statistical analysis of regional differences in storm structure and lightning and their potential relationships to environmental parameters and aerosols, (2) the relationship between mesoscale precipitation systems and transient luminous events (TLEs), and (3) the meteorology surrounding large impulse charge moment changes (iCMCs). In order to perform the statistical analyses required, the research group will use a recently developed algorithm that ingests and synthesizes radar, lightning, environmental, and aerosol data. The algorithm would be used with selected data sets to run basic statistical tests on different parameter populations in order to answer questions about the relationships of lightning with convective structure, the meteorological environment, and aerosols. For the second task, the group will analyze a number of case studies of TLE-producing events and compare them to prior case studies to address hypotheses relating to the production of TLEs in mesoscale convective systems (MCSs). They will focus on the stratiform charge layer, embedded convection in stratiform precipitation, and regional differences in MCS structure. For the third task, the researchers will study iCMCs, which are the products of the charge magnitude lowered to ground and the height above ground from which the charge is lowered, over the first 2 ms of a cloud-to-ground lightning strike. iCMCs can be measured by a recently developed instrument, and the researchers will use the observational data to place large iCMC observations in meteorological context to see what types of weather situations may produce these large charge moment changes.The intellectual merit of the work includes the improved understanding of the relationships between storm structure and lightning behavior, and the influence of the environment on convection and lightning. Both topics will be enhanced by a greater amount of data, larger geographic reach, and additional instrumentation available for this work. The research will also help to improve knowledge about the connections between MCSs and TLEs and determine what information iCMC events can tell us.The broader impacts of the research include the involvement of multiple graduate and undergraduate students and citizen scientists, widespread dissemination of results and data, and better understanding of high-impact convection and lightning.

该奖项将使研究团队有机会扩展他们对大气对流，云电气化和闪电的调查。 工作的三个主要领域是（1）对风暴结构和闪电区域差异的统计分析及其与环境参数和气溶胶的潜在关系，（2）中尺度降水系统与瞬态发光事件（TLES）之间的关系，以及（3）围绕大型脉冲充电力矩变化的气象（ICMC）。 为了执行所需的统计分析，研究小组将使用最近开发的算法，该算法摄入并合成雷达，闪电，环境和气溶胶数据。 该算法将与选定的数据集一起使用，以对不同参数群体进行基本统计测试，以回答有关闪电与对流结构，气象环境和气溶胶的关系的问题。 对于第二项任务，该小组将分析许多产生事件的案例研究，并将其与先前的案例研究进行比较，以解决与中尺度对流系统（MCSS）中TLE有关的假设。 它们将集中在层状电荷层，嵌入层状沉淀的对流以及MCS结构的区域差异上。 对于第三个任务，研究人员将研究ICMC，这是电荷幅度降低到地面的产物，并且在云到地面雷击的前2毫秒内，电荷降低了电荷的高度。 ICMC可以通过最近开发的仪器来衡量，研究人员将使用观察数据将大量的ICMC观测放置在气象环境中，以查看哪种类型的天气情况可能会导致这些较大的充电力矩变化。作品的智力优点包括对风暴结构和闪电行为之间的关系的改进理解，以及对环境对交流和灯光的影响。 这两个主题将通过更多的数据，更大的地理覆盖范围以及可用于此工作的其他仪器来增强这两个主题。 这项研究还将有助于提高有关MCSS和TLE之间联系的知识，并确定ICMC事件可以告诉我们的信息。该研究的更广泛影响包括多个研究生和本科生和公民科学家的参与，对结果和数据的广泛传播，以及对高影响对流和闪电的更好理解。