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: 2310336
• 负责人: David Schvartzman
• 金额: $ 21.71万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 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=2310336&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尺寸水滴和冰晶对闪电发展的作用。 相控阵雷达是下一代天气雷达技术，可以极快地扫描云层和降水。 快速扫描能力是检测秒级发生的关键闪电过程的关键。 该项目的潜在社会影响将是闪电预测的下游改进，这是一个重大的公共安全问题。 该项目还包括招募不同群体的学生参与部署和数据分析的计划，从而确保下一代科学家的培训。这项研究将使用新的相控阵雷达技术，在非常高的温度下提供雷暴的双偏振观测。短时间尺度来研究风暴带电过程。 高时间分辨率和完整的瞬时垂直数据对于表征在风暴上升气流附近促进闪电启动的结构、描述闪电通道与冰晶排列特征等微物理特征的相互作用以及探索来自雷达内通道的雷达信号的直接散射至关重要- 采样体积。 S 波段 Horus 雷达和 C 波段 PAIR 雷达将与 RaXPol X 波段雷达一起部署在俄克拉荷马州闪电测绘阵列 (LMA) 网络的覆盖范围内，并在 2023 年和 2024 年进行 10 次部署。研究人员将进行扫描序列每 80 秒重复一次，包括对整个风暴体积进行风暴规模的双多普勒扫描，以解决上升气流和下降气流的问题，同时在闪电时交织基本连续的更新和涡流时间尺度，以在中尺度背景下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偏振法分离分辨率范围内的水凝物，以研究微物理特性。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。