Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS): Preliminary results from the first deployment in winter 2020

Abstract:

The Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) is an Earth Venture Suborbital-3 (EVS-3) field campaign to study northeastern US snowstorms. The goals of IMPACTS are to characterize the spatial and temporal scales and structures of snowbands; understand the dynamical, thermodynamical and microphysical processes that produce the observed structures; and apply this understanding to remote sensing and modeling of snowfall. The first deployment of three total deployments took place January – February 2020 and sampled a range of events that occurred along the eastern seaboard, over northern New England and upstate New York, and over Illinois and Indiana. In order to sample storms over such a large geographical expanse, the primary means for making observations was with airborne instrumentation. Two NASA aircraft flew during IMPACTS, the high-altitude ER-2 and in situ P-3. The ER-2 carried a suite of remote sensing instruments including cloud and precipitation radars, lidar, and passive microwave instruments to simulate satellite-borne instrumentation. The P-3 sampled environmental and microphysical properties using a turbulent air motion measurement system, microphysics probes, and a dropsonde system to sample vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and winds. These airborne measurements were supplemented with ground-based measurements from rawinsondes launched from mobile sounding systems and at National Weather Service stations near the storms of interest, ground-based radars stationed over Long Island, and the New York State Mesonet ground network of meteorological and profiling instruments. The IMPACTS field campaign focused on the portions of winter mid-latitude cyclones where the snowfall was organized in banded structures, primarily northwest and northeast of the surface low pressure center. In this presentation, we will summarize the storms sampled and the preliminary results from this first winter season, primarily focusing on the 7 February 2020 event where up to 30 cm of snow fell over portions of upstate New York.