A045-05
TRacking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER): An upcoming field campaign

Tuesday, 8 December 2020: 05:42
Virtual
Michael P Jensen, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, United States, Eric C Bruning, Texas Tech University, Department of Geosciences Atmospheric Science Group, Lubbock, TX, United States, Don Collins, University of California Riverside, Riverside, United States, Ann M Fridlind, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, United States, Pavlos Kollias, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, Chongai Kuang, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Environmental and Climate Sciences Department, Upton, NY, United States, Alexander Ryzhkov, Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States, Daniel Rosenfeld, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel, Adam Varble, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, United States, Heath H Powers, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States and TRACER, TRACER-AQ and NSF ESCAPE Science Teams
Abstract:
To improve our understanding of convective clouds processes, particularly the impacts of aerosols on convective properties, the TRacking Aerosol Convection Interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER), is planned for April 2021-April 2022 in the Houston, TX region. The city of Houston lies within a humid subtropical climate regime, where onshore flow and associated sea-breeze generated convection interact with a variety of aerosol conditions from urban and industrial emissions. A series of pilot studies through the Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation and Climate initiative identified Houston as an optimal location for observing the interaction of aerosols and deep convective clouds.

Currently, the TRACER campaign includes the year-long deployment of the First ARM Mobile Facility, designed for continuous in situ and remote sensing observations of cloud, aerosol, precipitation and atmospheric state, and the 2ndgeneration C-band ARM Scanning Precipitation Radar. During an intensive operational period (IOP) from June -Sept. 2021, additional assets will be deployed including a third fixed observation site, detailed aerosol measurements, mobile sensing sites and small unmanned aerial vehicles. During the IOP period, the C-SAPR2 will focus on the tracking of isolated convective cells through their lifecycle and radiosondes will be launched at higher frequency to capture the quickly evolving thermodynamics and kinematic conditions. TRACER will also leverage existing measurement networks within the Houston area including surface meteorology and air quality networks operated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the Houston Lightning Mapping Array operated by Texas A&M University. Evolving interagency and international partnerships will aim to further quantify the temporal and spatial variability in atmospheric thermodynamics, aerosol and air quality properties.

The measurements collected during the TRACER campaign will enable: 1) The characterization and linking of convective cloud kinematic, microphysical and electrification lifecycles, 2) the quantification of environmental thermodynamic and kinematic controls on convective lifecycle properties, and 3) the isolation and quantification of the impacts of aerosol properties on convective cloud kinematic and microphysical evolution.

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