NOREASTER: Nor'easter

Summary

Nor'easter consists of a single flight on the NSF/NCAR HIAPER Gulfstream-V research aircraft to fly the HIAPER Cloud Radar (HCR) across the comma head of a strong Nor'easter cyclone in an attempt to determine unambiguously whether or not generating cells exist in these storms, and what their role is in snow production and banding, via high resolution measurements across the comma head with vertically pointing radars.

Cyclones forming along the U.S. East Coast typically are exceptional snow producers. With the additional moisture and heat provided by the Atlantic, they have conditions more conducive to convection compared to their continental counterparts. They also have widespread stratiform cloud shields, and well documented banded structure. The HIAPER research flight will provide a unique scientific opportunity to obtain the data necessary to investigate the relationship between elevated convection, generating cells aloft, precipitation streamers generated by the cells, and banded precipitation. The data analysis will use techniques the Rauber group, from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, developed for processing airborne radar data during PLOWS, which will help EOL's Remote Sensing Facility further assess the performance of the HIAPER Cloud Radar in preparation for CSET deployment in summer 2015.