Cape Canaveral radar research

CAPE field experiments with Jerome “Jerry” M. Schmidt

2008, 2009, 2010, and 2015 · campaigns documented in the 2019 overview
Cape Canaveral–Titusville region, Florida, United States

This collaboration used the U.S. Navy’s Mid-Course Radar (MCR) with aircraft and supporting ground observations to examine cloud structure and individual hydrometeors. The 2019 overview documents four campaigns: 7–18 July 2008, 13–24 July 2009, 16–27 August 2010, and 27 July–9 August 2015. [A56, Table 2]

Research and findings

The radar, previously used to monitor debris during Space Shuttle launches, could observe both cloud-scale structure and the traces of individual particles. With Jerry Schmidt and collaborators, I helped interpret the distinctive radar streaks produced by individual raindrops and relate them to particle properties and the surrounding storm. The 2012 paper examined a storm observed on 27 August 2010. [A46]

Other studies resolved small convective cells and virga circulations in altocumulus on 27 August 2010, and billow clouds with slanted precipitation shafts in a mixed-phase stratiform cloud shield on 24 August 2010. These observations linked fine-scale circulation, melting-layer processes, and precipitation structure. The radar’s finest reported range resolution was approximately half a metre. [A51] [A55] [A56]

Related publications

1. A46

   Schmidt, J.M., P.J. Flatau, P.R. Harasti, R.D. Yates, R. Littleton, M.S. Pritchard, J.M. Fischer, E.J. Fischer, W.J. Kohri, J.R. Vetter, S. Richman, D.B. Baranowski, M.J. Anderson, E. Fletcher, and D.W. Lando, Radar Observations of Individual Rain Drops in the Free Atmosphere, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109, 9293-9298, doi:10.1073/pnas.1117776109, 2012.

2. A51

   Schmidt, J.M., P.J. Flatau, and R.D. Yates, Convective Cells in Altocumulus Observed with a High-Resolution Radar, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 71, 2130-2154, doi:10.1175/JAS-D-13-0172.1., 2014.

3. A55

   Schmidt, J.M., P.J. Flatau, & P.R. Harasti (2017). Evidence for a Nimbostratus Uncinus in a Convectively Generated Mixed-Phase Stratiform Cloud Shield. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 74(12), 4093-4116.

4. A56

   Schmidt, J.M., P.J. Flatau, P.R. Harasti, R.D. Yates, D.J. Delene, N.J. Gapp, W.J. Kohri, J.R. Vetter, J.E. Nachamkin, M.G. Parent, J.D. Hoover, M.J. Anderson, S. Green, and J.E. Bennett. Radar detection of individual raindrops. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100(12):2433–2450, 2019.