HR: 1340h
AN: ED33A-1235    [Abstracts]
TI: RICO Graduate Student Research Flight: The Island Tail Objective
AU: * Small, J D
EM: jsmall@es.ucsc.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Cruz, Earth Science Department 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 United States
AU: Anderson-Bereznicki, S D
EM: sdab@purdue.edu
AF: Purdue University, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907 United States
AU: Medeiros, B
EM: brianpm@atmos.ucla.edu
AF: University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 405 Hilgard Ave Box 951565 7127 Math Sciences Bldg., Los Angeles, CA 90095-1565 United States
AU: Nuijens, L
EM: Louise.Nuyens@wur.nl
AF: Wageningen UR, Meteorology and Air Quality Group Department of Environmental Sciences Duivendaal 2, Wageningen, 6701 AP Netherlands
AU: Henry, C K
EM: chenry@purdue.edu
AF: Purdue University, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907 United States
AU: O'Donnell, D M
EM: dodonnel@uwyo.edu
AF: University of Wyoming, Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences Dept 3038 100 E University Ave, Laramie, WY 82071 United States
AU: Morales, F
EM: flavia@adam.uprr.pr
AF: University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus Villa Oriente A-62, Humacao, PR 00791 United States
AU: Shen, H
EM: hshen@gso.uri.edu
AF: University of Rhode Island, Center for Atmospheric Chemistry Studies Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, RI 02882 United States
AB: The Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean (RICO) project was an intensive field project aimed to study and understand precipitation processes in trade wind cumulus. The project took place from Nov 23, 2004 until Jan 25, 2005 on two small islands of the Lesser Antilles, Antigua and Barbuda, where trade wind cumulus fields frequently occur during suppressed wintertime conditions. RICO provided a unique combination of research and education by offering the RICO Graduate Seminar Series and the development and implementation of a graduate student designed and directed research flight. One of the main goals of the graduate student research flight was to allow graduate students to participate in the process of developing a research flight plan and identifying scientific goals and objectives first-hand. Added benefits included the possibility of addressing scientific questions not included in the main RICO objectives. This also involved collaboration when discussing different ideas and initiatives and the full development of all stages of the research flight including the coordination of two research aircraft (NCAR-C130, University of Wyoming King Air), one research vessel (RV Seward Johnson), S-Pol radar site and real time operations center satellite information. Seventeen graduate students from both the US and Europe developed two different plans to be presented to RICO project principle investigators; both of which were approved. The island tail objective aimed at characterizing the line of clouds known as 'island tails' that frequently form off the leeward coast of the Caribbean islands. This objective was successful in its implementation on Jan 18, 2005 with measurements made in vigorous, waterspout producing tail clouds immediately downwind of Barbuda. The investigation of these 'tails' fills a void in current cloud physics research since it is the first time this ubiquitous feature of trade-wind islands has been the focus of careful study. Scientific questions to be addressed with data collected on the island tail include: 1) Are these clouds forced by a heated island effect or another dynamical mechanism? 2) Do islands serve merely as source regions of aerosol which act as nucleation sites? 3) Where in the island tail does rain develop, if at all? A description of the unique learning experience and the educational and scientific benefits of the graduate student research flight island tail objective are outlined and discussed.
DE: 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005