Aerosols and Cloud-Convection Precipitation (A-CCP) Study

THE GOAL OF THE A-CCP STUDY IS TO DEFINE OBJECTIVES FOR THE A AND CCP DESIGNATED OBSERVABLE (DO) OBSERVING SYSTEMS THE DESIRED CAPABILITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THESE OBSERVABLES AND OBSERVING SYSTEMS APPROACHES TO ACHIEVE THEM. THIS STUDY LEVERAGES THE RESULTS FROM STUDIES SUCH AS THE AEROSOL-CLOUDECOSYSTEMS (ACE) STUDY THOSE FROM EXISTING AND PROPOSED EARTH VENTURE CONCEPTS AND ANALYSIS ALREADY CONDUCTED ON DATA FROM PAST FIELD EXPERIMENTS AND RECENT ADVANCES OF MODELING SYSTEMS AND OBSERVING SYSTEM SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS (OSSES). THE PI IS A MEMBER OF THE SCIENCE IMPACT TEAM (SIT) THAT IS CHARGED TO EVALUATE THE EXTENT TO WHICH VARIOUS MEASUREMENTS ARCHITECTURES (I.E. SETS OF MEASURABLES WITH SPECIFIED CHARACTERISTICS) PROVIDE THE GEOPHYSICAL PARAMETERS REQUIRED TO MEET THE SCIENCE OBJECTIVES AND CONTRIBUTE TO APPLICATION OBJECTIVES. THE SIT INPUTS WILL HELP THE A-CCP TEAM QUANTIFIABLY MEASURE THE INFORMATION OR CONSTRAINTS THAT MEASUREMENT ARCHITECTURES PROVIDE FOR SPECIFIC SCIENCE QUESTIONS OR GEOPHYSICAL PARAMETERS. THE SIT INPUTS WILL ASSIST IN THE A-CCP TEAM'S MEASUREMENT OF THE CONTRIBUTION THAT A PARTICULAR OBSERVING SYSTEM CONFIGURATION PROVIDES TO A SCIENCE QUESTION EITHER VIA THE GEOPHYSICAL PARAMETERS REQUIRED TO ADDRESS IT OR MORE INDIRECTLY WHEN THESE OBSERVABLES ARE ASSIMILATED IN EARTH SYSTEM MODELS. THE PI WILL FOCUS ON DEMONSTRATING THE ADDED VALUE OF MULTI.FREQUENCY AND DOPPLER VELOCITY RADAR MEASUREMENTS TO CONSTRAIN GEOPHYSICAL PARAMETERS AND PHYSICAL TENDENCIES IN CLOUDS CONVECTION AND PRECIPITATION THAT CAN BE USED TO ADDRESS THE A-CCP SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES. THE PI WILL USE MEASUREMENTS COLLECTED IN FIELD CAMPAIGNS MODELING ACTIVITIES AND OBSERVING SYSTEM SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS (OSSES). CAMPAIGNS THAT INCLUDE REPRESENTATIVE MEASUREMENT SETS SUCH AS MULTI-FREQUENCY RADAR ESPECIALLY WHEN COMBINED WITH GROUND TRUTH VALIDATION WILL BE CONSIDERED. THE PAST CAMPAIGN DATA WILL BE USED TO HIGHLIGHT THE PROS- AND CONS- OF DIFFERENT MISSION ARCHITECTURES. IN COORDINATION WITH THE SCIENCE/ APPLICATIONS LEADERSHIP TEAM (SALT) THE PI WILL CONDUCT OSSE ACTIVITIES TO ASSESS THE ABILITY OF SPECIFIC ARCHITECTURES TO ADDRESS THE A-CCP SCIENCE OBJECTIVES PARTICULARLY THOSE RELATED TO THE MEASUREMENT OF VERTICAL AIR MOTION IN DEEP CONVECTION. OSSE FIGURES OF MERIT WILL INCLUDE THE QUALITY OF RETRIEVALS SAMPLING ADEQUACY AND IMPACT ON METEOROLOGICAL/ AEROSOL ANALYSIS AND FORECASTS. THE OSSE STUDIES WILL USE VERY HIGH-RESOLUTION CLOUD-'RESOLVING MODELS TO ESTABLISHING A LIBRARY OF SIMULATION DATA SETS THAT ADDRESS SPECIFIC SCIENCE OBJECTIVES IDENTIFIED FOR CCP. THE CASE STUDIES WILL BE COUPLED WITH LIBRARIES OF FORWARD MEASUREMENT SIMULATORS TO ALLOW US TO LINK MODELED MICROPHYSICS AND DYNAMICS WITH SPECIFIC PROCESSES AND TO THE EXTENT TO WHICH SIMULATED MEASUREMENTS CONVEY INFORMATION ABOUT THOSE PROCESSES. AT THE BEGINNING OF THE STUDY THE PI WILL CONTRIBUTE TO AN INITIAL VERSION OF THE SCIENCE AND APPLICATION TRACEABILITY MATRICES WHERE SETS OF OBSERVABLES ARE DEFINED FOR FORMAL MISSION ARCHITECTURE STUDIES THE TEAM WILL PROVIDE INPUT TO THE DEFINITION TEAMS REGARDING THE INFORMATION THAT CERTAIN MEASUREMENTS AND MEA SUREMENT COMBINATIONS CONTRIBUTE IN A GENERAL SENSE. IN THE SECOND AND MORE COMPLEX PHASE OF THE STUDY PI AS A MEMBER OF THE SIT WILL PROVIDE SCIENCE COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE TO AID THE SALT'S EVALUATION OF SPECIFIC MISSION ARCHITECTURES FOR THEIR CAPACITY TO QUANTIFY GEOPHYSICAL VARIABLES AND CONTRIBUTE MORE BROADLY TO SCIENCE QUESTIONS. THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE SIT WILL ULTIMATELY BE USED AS INPUT TO A VALUE ASSESSMENT DESCRIBED BELOW. THIS SECOND PHASE WILL BE NECESSARILY ITERATIVE AS INSTRUMENT CONCEPTS ARE REFINED IN COLLABORATION WITH ENGINEERING TO MEET THE STATED DESIRED CAPABILITIES OF SCIENCE WHILE RE MAINING WITHIN REASONABLE COST CONSTRAINTS.