Summary

The RELAMPAGO  field program will be conducted in west  central Argentina in the general vicinity of the Sierras de Cordoba (SDC) and the Andes foothills  near Mendoza. This region arguably has among the most intense convective systems in the world  with respect to the frequency of large hail, high storm tops, and extreme lightning activity,  yet much remains unknown about the scarcely observed intense convection in this region. RELAMPAGO,  leveraging the repeatability of storms in the region, aims to address science questions related  to the pre-initiation to initiation, initial organization/severe-weather generation, and growth/backbuilding  stages of storm development, which are poorly understood. New insights into sconnections between  the extreme hydroclimate, high impact weather, and atmospheric dynamical processes in meteorological  and geographical settings unique to the these regions can be obtained by bringing together  NSF facilities with (1) new operational dual-polarization radars in Argentina, (2) significant  contributions from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, NOAA, and NASA, and (3) a complementary funded  U.S. Department of Energy major field campaign called Clouds, Aerosols, and Complex Terrain  Interactions (CACTI).