Storm Chasing with the INCUS Mission

The overarching goal of the NASA INvestigation of Convective UpdraftS (INCUS) mission is to enhance our understanding of why, when and where tropical convective storms form, and why only some of these storms produce extreme weather. Convective storms transport air and water between Earth's surface and the upper troposphere. This vertical transport of air and water - often referred to as convective mass flux (CMF) - plays a critical role in Earth's weather and climate system through its impacts on large-scale atmospheric circulations, upper tropospheric moistening and high cloud-radiative feedbacks, precipitation rates, and extreme weather. Potential changes to CMF with changing climates may significantly impact these processes. In spite of the critical role of this vertical transport of water and air, representation of CMF remains a major source of error in weather and climate models, thereby limiting our ability to accurately predict convective storms and their impacts in current and future climates. The observations obtained from INCUS will enhance our understanding of tropical convective storm processes and provide guidance for representing these processes in weather and climate models.