Collaborative Research: EAGER--Initial Evaluation of Polarimetric Phased Array Radar for the Study of Storm Electrification and Lightning

合作研究：EAGER——用于风暴带电和闪电研究的偏振相控阵雷达的初步评估

• 批准号: 2310337
• 负责人: Eric Bruning
• 金额: $ 7.76万
• 依托单位: Texas Tech University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-04-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2310337&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; EAGER; Initial; Evaluation

This project will make use of new weather radar technology to assess the role that small-scale droplets and ice crystals in clouds have on the development of lightning. Phased-array radar is a next-generation technology for weather radar that can provide extremely fast scanning of clouds and precipitation. The fast-scanning ability is key for detecting key lightning processes that happen on the order of seconds. The potential societal impact of this project would be the downstream improvement in lightning prediction, a significant public safety problem. The project also includes plans for recruiting a diverse cohort of students to participate in the deployment and data analysis, thereby ensuring training of the next generation of scientists.This study will use new phased array radar technology to provide dual-polarization observations of thunderstorms at very short time scales to study the storm electrification process. High temporal resolution and full instantaneous vertical data are critical to characterizing the structures which promote lightning initiations near storm updrafts, describing the interplay of lightning channels with microphysical features such as ice crystal alignment signatures, and exploring the direct scattering of radar signals from channels within radar-sampled volumes. The S-band Horus radar and the C-band PAIR radar will be deployed alongside the RaXPol X-band radar within reach of the Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) network in 10 deployments across 2023 and 2024. The researchers will conduct a scan sequence repeating every 80 s, including storm-scale dual-Doppler scans over the full storm volume, to resolve updrafts and downdrafts, while interleaving essentially continuous updates at lightning and eddy time scales to provide fast-time and detailed spatial resolution within mesoscale context. The team will also separate hydrometeors within resolution volumes using Doppler spectral polarimetry methods to study microphysical properties.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目将利用新的天气雷达技术来评估云中小型液滴和冰晶在闪电发展中的作用。 梯级阵列雷达是一种用于天气雷达的下一代技术，可以对云和降水进行非常快速的扫描。 快速扫描能力是检测在几秒钟顺序上发生的关键闪电过程的关键。 该项目的潜在社会影响将是雷电预测的下游改善，这是一个重大的公共安全问题。 该项目还包括招募各种学生参与部署和数据分析的计划，从而确保对下一代科学家进行培训。这项研究将使用新的分阶段阵列雷达技术来提供在很短时间内对雷暴的双极化观察，以研究暴风雨电气化过程。 高时间分辨率和完整的瞬时垂直数据对于表征促进风暴上升气流附近的闪电启动的结构至关重要，描述了闪电通道与微物理特征的相互作用，例如冰晶体对齐，以及探索雷达信号的直接散射在雷达采样量中的通道中。 S频段的荷鲁斯雷达和C频对对雷达将与Raxpol X频段雷达一起部署，在2023年和2024年的10个部署中，俄克拉荷马州闪电映射阵列（LMA）网络范围内。在闪电和涡流时间尺度上实质上连续更新，以在中尺度上下文中提供快速和详细的空间分辨率。 该团队还将使用多普勒光谱极化方法在分辨率卷中分离水力如艺，以研究微物理特性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛影响的评估标准来评估值得通过评估来支持的。