Grasso, Weaver

A new project is underway to simulate thunderstorms that initialize with ‘bubbles’ of different intensity within the same environment. Initial results show that relative intensities tend to remain the same in the absence of outside influences. The next step will be to allow the weaker storm of the pair to interact with small-scale features to learn whether the storm strengthens and remains strong following the interaction.  

The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) was used to simulate a thunderstorm to provide input for a Radiative Transfer Model (RTM). Simulated GOES channel four brightness temperatures diagnosed from the RTM will be used as input to the NESDIS AutoEstimator (AE) rainfall algorithm.  Derived rain rates from the AE will be compared to simulated rain rates from RAMS.  The loop below shows the simulated channel 4 brightness temperatures from the model prediction.  This work is a joint effort with R. Kuligowski from NESDIS/ORA.

http://procyon.cira.colostate.edu/ORAIntranet/Weeklies/teams/cira/archive/2001/wk35/wk35.htm