Experiment of Sea Breeze Convection, Aerosols, Precipitation, and Environment (ESCAPE)
Pavlos Kollias, Greg M. McFarquhar, Eric C. Bruning, Paul J. DeMott, Matthew R. Kumjian, Paul Lawson, Zachary J. Lebo, Timothy Logan, Kelly Lombardo, Mariko Oue, Greg Roberts, Raymond A. Shaw, Susan C. van den Heever, Mengistu Wolde, Kevin R. Barry, David M. Bodine, Roelof Bruintjes, V. Chandrasekar, Andrew M. Dzambo, Thomas C. J. Hill, Michael Jensen, Francesc Junyent, Sonia M. Kreidenweis, Katia Lamer, Edward Luke, Aaron Bansemer, Christina S. McCluskey, Leonid Nichman, Cuong Viet Nguyen, Ryan Patnaude, Russell Perkins, Heath Powers, Keyvan Ranjbar, Eric Roux, Jeffrey C. Snyder, Bernat P. Treserras, Peisang Tsai, Nathan A. Wales, Cory Wolf, Nithin Allwayin, Ben Ascher, Jason Barr, Yishi Hu, Yongjie Huang, Miles Litzmann, Zackary Mages, Katherine E. McKeown, Saurabh Patil, Elise Rosky, Kristofer S. Tuftedal, Min‐Duan Tzeng, Zeen Zhu
Abstract
Abstract Convective clouds play an important role in Earth’s climate system and are a known source of extreme weather. Gaps in our understanding of convective vertical motions, microphysics, and precipitation across a full range of aerosol and meteorological regimes continue to limit our ability to predict the occurrence and intensity of these cloud systems. To improve predictability, the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored a large field experiment entitled “Experiment of Sea Breeze Convection, Aerosols, Precipitation, and Environment (ESCAPE).” ESCAPE took place between 30 May and 30 September 2022 in the vicinity of Houston, Texas, because this area frequently experiences isolated deep convection that interacts with the region’s mesoscale circulations and its range of aerosol conditions. ESCAPE focused on collecting observations of isolated deep convection through innovative sampling and developing novel analysis techniques. This included the deployment of two research aircraft, the National Research Council of Canada Convair-580 and the Stratton Park Engineering Company Learjet, which combined conducted 24 research flights from 30 May to 17 June. On the ground, three mobile X-band radars and one mobile Doppler lidar truck equipped with soundings were deployed from 30 May to 28 June. From 1 August to 30 September 2022, a dual-polarization C-band radar was deployed and operated using a novel, multisensor agile adaptive sampling strategy to track the entire life cycle of isolated convective clouds. Analysis of the ESCAPE observations has already yielded preliminary findings on how aerosols and environmental conditions impact the convective life cycle. Significance Statement The ESCAPE field experiment provided unique observations of coastal convective cloud vertical motions, microphysics, and precipitation across a wide range of summertime aerosol and meteorological regimes. The highest aerosol concentrations occurred near the refineries in eastern Houston but did not contribute to the cloud condensation nuclei and ice-nucleating particles. The airborne measurements included frequent sampling of intense convective updraft dynamics and microphysics. A novel radar-based sampling of convective cells provided unique observations of their 3D structure throughout their life cycle. Mobile trucks equipped with soundings provided a detailed sampling of the sea-breeze structure and evolution. These datasets will be used for improving high-resolution simulations of high-impact events in coastal urbanized areas.