Several members of the CSD group will be in the field this summer/early fall for the NSF-funded PICCOLO campaign (Process Investigation of Clouds and Convective Organization over the atLantic Ocean).
PICCOLO is the U.S. component of the broader U.S.-German-French ORCESTRA campaign (Organized Convection and EarthCare Studies over the Tropical Atlantic). PICCOLO involves collaborations with Florida State University (Allison Wing), Colorado State University (Michael Bell), and the University of Toronto (Morgan O’Neill).
The mission of PICCOLO is to advance our understanding of the cloud-scale processes that foster upscale development of tropical storms, which are important to the formation of tropical cyclones, among other things. A major component of this work will leverage the CSU SEAPOL dual-polarization C-band radar to sample tropical clouds. We’ll use these observations to document the organization of clouds and their interactions with incoming and outgoing radiation.
The German research vessel Meteor will carry the SEAPOL and our group on a six-week journey across the tropical Atlantic Ocean, making transects across different cloud scenes. This mission will provide the first record of such cloud observations, which are expected to significantly advance our understanding of tropical weather and climate.
Group PI James Ruppert is participating in the campaign from its start in Cape Verde to its finish in Barbados, while students Emily Luschen, Mac Syrett, and Colin Welty will join in Barbados to support weather balloon launches.
Since we’re expecting to have an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season, this mission promises to be exciting and in a host of ways!