Page 8 - Aerotech News and Review 8-7-15

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“When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning,
or in rain? ... That will be ere the set of sun.”
Opening lines from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”
Last month, NASA and its partners waited for
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Nebraska and the storms to come out in order to
take a closer look at them with research aircraft.
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derstanding of medium-size weather systems and
the resulting thunderstorms – known as mesoscale
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States central Great Plains in the summertime. The
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(OHYDWHG&RQYHFWLRQ$W1LJKWLVIXQGHGE\WKH to early morning.
National Science Foundation with support from
NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-
ministration, the National Center for Atmospheric
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“The forecast for these nighttime thunderstorms
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storms will be or where the storms will go,” said
Richard Ferrare, senior research scientist from the
$WPRVSKHULF6FLHQFHV'LYLVLRQDW1$6$/DQJOH\ this, their operations base, on June 30. The DC-8 is
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is trying to do is acquire a lot more detail data for
predicting where these storms will form, how long
they will last, and how much rain will come from
the storm.”
Unlike other parts of the U.S., summer thun-
derstorms across this region are most common
after sunset. These nighttime storms may produce
KHDY\UDLQIDOOWKDWFDQEHDVLJQL¿FDQWSRUWLRQRI From his seat in the midsection of the aircraft,
the yearly precipitation in the Great Plains.
Scientists understand why thunderstorms form
during the day as rising warm air from the heated
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is the appearance of thunderstorms after the sun has
gone down and the land surface has cooled. The air
that creates nighttime thunderstorms often origi-
QDWHVLQDQHOHYDWHGOD\HUDERYHWKHVXUIDFHDQGLV “What we’re trying to do right now is measure
outside the reach of the usual surface-based weath-
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to predict the MCSs as a potential weather hazard
and their impact on farming and water supplies.
To address this need, participants from 11 re-
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lecting storm data on June 1 based
out of Hays, Kansas using ground
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and why nighttime thunderstorms
form.
In addition to NASA and NOAA
aircraft, researchers collected data
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of Wyoming King Air, ground-
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Integrated Sounding Arrays,
weather balloons, and fixed and
mobile radars. NASA’s Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
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based monitoring equipment, the
X-Band Atmospheric Doppler
Ground-based Radar; and the At-
mospheric Lidar for Validation,
Interagency Collaboration and
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Based on the best informa-
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planes and mobile ground units to areas where
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ground instruments were obtaining information
about the background conditions.
As sleepless as the rain
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The aircraft carried atmospheric science instru-
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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
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For two and a half weeks, home for the DC-8
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based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Facil-
ity in Palmdale, Calif., and supports NASA’s Air-
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Directorate. as well as the rain coming from the storm.”
July.
On July 10, at almost 30,000 feet somewhere )HUUDUHVDLGWKHUHZHUHDYDULHW\RIVWRUPW\SHV 1RZWKDWWKHGDWDKDYHEHHQFROOHFWHGWKHFKDO-
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ment instrument on the DC-8. “Which is good,” he said. “It helps us to better
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often see in these storms.”
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that started at 8 p.m. Ferrare rubbed his eyes, made A study born in a hallway, a group of atmo-
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stared at two display screens. One was a representa- were standing around chatting one day about the rainfall in the region.
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The second showed a simple aircraft icon drawing the instrument PIs and students bring their data to-
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south from Nebraska into Kansas.
understanding why most of the rain in the central of information about the atmosphere including the
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IURP1$6$12$$WKH'2(DQGPDQ\XQLYHUVL- will help the scientists understand the physics of
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ties from across the U.S. and Canada,” said Tammy
these systems and create better weather and climate
Weckwerth, a scientist from NCAR and one of the PRGHOVIURPWKH3(&$1GDWD
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she concentrates on mesoscale meteorology, espe- MCSs and thunderstorms.
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cially the relationship between the boundary layer
and the initiation of thunderstorms.
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LQÀXHQFHRQDJULFXOWXUHLQWKHUHJLRQ,PSURYHG says Weckwerth, “whether they are farmers or
forecasting models would help farmers know when WUXFNGULYHUVRUDQ\RQHZKRLVSODQQLQJDSLFQLFWKH
and where the thunderstorms will occur, how to QH[WGD\LWJRHVWRWKHYHU\KHDUWRIZKDWSHRSOH
make decisions on irrigation, or how and when to need to know — that is — how much rain is going
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plant seeds. \DUG"(YHU\ERG\QHHGVWRNQRZWKDWVRWKH\FDQ
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“There’s also the human safety factor with these
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WLPHRIWKHKD]DUGVVXFKDVÀDVKÀRRGLQJRUKLJK Now that the data have been
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creased warning time so people can get to safety.”
of the puzzle together to
In addition to the effect it has on the region’s hy- understand what was going on
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a home in nearby Wichita, Kansas with an estimat-
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from the storm punched a hole in the north turret storms forming, and during
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in the past 18 months – fourteen resulted in dam- stages produce the maximum
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forecasting and weather prediction capabilities
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Aerotech News and Review August 7, 2015
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