Radar and Airborne Observations in Florida Thunderstorm Anvils

Abstract:

The CAPEX2019 project was conducted in the Cape Canaveral, Florida, area from July 16 -August 7, 2019. The US Naval Research Laboratory was the prime sponsor. Its goals included improved radar remote sensing of cloud microphysical characteristics and meteorological processes. The Weather Modification International Cessna Citation II made more than a half dozen extended research flights in thunderstorms during the project. It monitored microphysical and meteorological characteristics in storm anvil regions being scanned by several research radars. It also monitored ambient electric fields. Focusing on these electrical observations, the vertical component of the in-storm electric fields in these regions typically had a magnitude of the order of 10’s kV m^-1 with both positive and negative polarities observed, sometimes within the same storm at the same altitude. Horizontal electric fields were typically of the order of a few kV m^-1 or less. We will present examples of relationships between anvil-level storm electrical properties, radar-observed meteorological processes, and airborne observations of microphysical processes and interpret them in terms of the traditional thunderstorm electrical tripole conceptual model.