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94-GHz Doppler Radar Observations of Mammatus in Tropical Anvils During Crystal-Face Experiment

94-GHz Doppler Radar Observations of Mammatus in Tropical Anvils During Crystal-Face Experiment. Ieng Jo Radar Meteorology Group Univ. of Miami. Motivation.

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94-GHz Doppler Radar Observations of Mammatus in Tropical Anvils During Crystal-Face Experiment

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  1. 94-GHz Doppler Radar Observations of Mammatus in Tropical Anvils During Crystal-Face Experiment Ieng Jo Radar Meteorology Group Univ. of Miami

  2. Motivation • Mammatus clouds are one of the most striking features of clouds associated with deep convective activity, often present at the cloud base resembling pendant bulges known as mamma. • Despite copious photographic documentation of mammatus clouds, there is a limited number of observations using meteorological instruments. • Turbulent activity in mammatus clouds can be hazardous to aircrafts and previous observations have provided contradictory evidence. • Due to their small scale microphysical and dynamical structure mammatus clouds present an ideal testbed for cloud radar research.

  3. Crystal-Face Eastern Ground Radar Site • NOAA, ETL Ka-band radar • Rayleigh scattering • High sensitivity for cirrus clouds • ARM/MMCR operational strategy (4 modes) • Resolution: 8 sec, 45 m • University of Miami, W-band radar • Rayleigh and Mie scattering • High sensitivity • Single mode operations • Resolution: 1.7 sec, 30 m

  4. NOAA/ETL 35-GHz UM 94-GHz

  5. Mammatus

  6. 3 km 25 min 3 km

  7. Horizontal gradient of radar observables • Strong downdrafts within the mamma cores. • Typical observed maximum downward velocities are –3 to –5 m/s. • The highest downward Doppler velocities are highly correlated with high reflectivity values.

  8. Vertical gradient of radar observables Time = 3.9 UTC 4 ms-1 Melting or dynamics? Velocity dBZ

  9. Radar observables at mamma’s side and interior

  10. Conclusions • Unprecedented high resolution observations of mammatus were obtained during Crystal-Face experiment by the UMDCR The observations captured the fine reflectivity structure of mammatus clouds and significant Doppler velocity perturbations were recorded. These features were under sampled by other active sensors in the past The strong evidence of recirculating motions around individual mammatus illuminate a conceptual physical model of mamma clouds New Research Topic: Fair weather Cumuli • Dynamical and microphysical structure • Drizzle processes

  11. Future work • Integrate remote sensors currently present at our campus such as, microwave radiometer, total sky imager, spectra radiometer and collect boundary layer cloud observation • Collaborate and participate in field experiments such as Rain In Cumulus over the Ocean (RICO)

  12. Acknowledgement Dr. Bruce Albrecht Dr. Roger Lhermitte Dr. Pavlos Kollias Manuel Lonfat, and my classmates Scott,John, Ray,Melice Tom Snowdon

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