HR: 1330h
AN: H23A-20    [Abstracts]
TI: Development of a High Resolution Precipitation Research Facility in the Northern Plains
AU: * Kucera, P A
EM: pkucera@aero.und.edu
AF: University of North Dakota, Department of Atmospheric Sciences P.O. Box 9006, Grand Forks, ND 58202 United States
AB: The Department of Atmospheric Science at the University of North Dakota is developing a high resolution precipitation research facility in the northern plains. The site is located about 60 km south-southeast of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The research site resides on the Nature Conservancy Glacial Ridge Prairie Restoration Project, a 24,000 acre property that is currently being restored to natural prairie and wetlands from existing farmland. The extensive area of the property provides a unique opportunity to study precipitation variability over temporal scales of seconds to an annual time frame and spatial scales ranging from meters to tens of kilometers. The research facility will include a dense network of rain gauges, several disdrometers, a vertical wind profiler, snow sensors, and microwave radiometer. Other measurements including longwave/shortwave radiation, aerosol, and surface boundary conditions are also planned for the site. The research facility is designed to compliment existing hydrologic research activities at Glacial Ridge. The site is ideally located to provide surface precipitation observations for radar studies using the UND C-Band polarimetric Doppler weather radar located in Grand Forks and with the Mayville WSR-88D Doppler weather radar located in Mayville, North Dakota. An overview of the facility, planned research activities, and observations will be given in the presentation.
DE: 1833 Hydroclimatology
DE: 1836 Hydrologic budget (1655)
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly