Forecast briefing for 11/18/2010. Operations are likely this weekend! Stay tuned for updates.
FacebookHigh Quality (177mb)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
DOW practice deployment a success!
The DOW successfully deployed at a location near Manvel, ND on 11/17/2010.
Although this was primarily a practice deployment, we were able to sucessfully sample the light snow showers that passed through the Red River Valley. Two examples of the data we collected are posted below. I apologize for the poor quality... these were captured with a cellphone camera! We will post better images later after we download the data.
Range Height Indicator (RHI) plots (see image above) allow meteorologists to view the atmosphere as if you were viewing the side of a piece of cake. The horizontal axis corresponds to the distance from the radar. In this example, the radar is located on the left hand side. The vertical axis corresponds to the height in the atmosphere. In this RHI, a thin layer of snow showers can be seen at levels at 2 kilometers and below in the atmosphere. Aloft, the radar can see ice phase clouds known as Cirrus at approximately 6 km.
Meteorologists can also use radars to produce Plan Position-Indicator (PPI) plots. This allows us to view the atmosphere completely surrounding the radar. Using the cake reference used to explain the RHI, this is like viewing the complete cake from above (well not exactly... see the below figure). In reality, we are displaying a complicated slice of the atmospheric cake where data is higher in elevation as you get farther from the center (the radar). This occurs because the radar is pointed upward at an angle.
In the example above, we can see a snow shower (the purple colors) to the N/NW of the radar which is in the center of the plot. As the snow shower passed over the DOW, the number and size of snowflakes increased drastically.
For more info about RHI and PPI plots, check out these other descriptions/example.
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gl%29/guides/rs/rad/basics/cnmod.rxml
Range Height Indicator (RHI) plots (see image above) allow meteorologists to view the atmosphere as if you were viewing the side of a piece of cake. The horizontal axis corresponds to the distance from the radar. In this example, the radar is located on the left hand side. The vertical axis corresponds to the height in the atmosphere. In this RHI, a thin layer of snow showers can be seen at levels at 2 kilometers and below in the atmosphere. Aloft, the radar can see ice phase clouds known as Cirrus at approximately 6 km.
Meteorologists can also use radars to produce Plan Position-Indicator (PPI) plots. This allows us to view the atmosphere completely surrounding the radar. Using the cake reference used to explain the RHI, this is like viewing the complete cake from above (well not exactly... see the below figure). In reality, we are displaying a complicated slice of the atmospheric cake where data is higher in elevation as you get farther from the center (the radar). This occurs because the radar is pointed upward at an angle.
In the example above, we can see a snow shower (the purple colors) to the N/NW of the radar which is in the center of the plot. As the snow shower passed over the DOW, the number and size of snowflakes increased drastically.
For more info about RHI and PPI plots, check out these other descriptions/example.
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gl%29/guides/rs/rad/basics/cnmod.rxml
Operations plans for 11/17/10
Practice deployments will occur today for the radars. The shortwave that will impact the region tomorrow appears to be trending north and precipitation will be outside of the operational domain. Next chance for operations will be this weekend.
Forecast briefing for 11/17/10:
FacebookHigh Quality (152mb)
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
DOW training begins!
Over the past several days, numbers of UND undergraduate and graduate atmospheric science students have been trained to operate the DOW by Justin Walker of CSWR.
- The radar group
Justin Walker (center) describes the DOW computer systems to several AtSci. graduate students: Joel Siegel (left), Shaoyue Qui (middle right), and Ryan Stanfield (bottom right).
- The radar group
Operation plans for 11/16 and the following days
No operations for today! Tomorrow, there may be a maintenance flight for the Citation. If this occurs, the radars will run a test deployment. On Thursday, there is a chance of a cirrus deployment. Regardless of cirrus occurrence, the radars will be performing practice deployments. Crew will be needed for these activities, so please contact these groups if you are interested in participating!
Forecast for 11-16-2010
Near term forecast: Synoptic scale flow will continue to be the larger force controlling the weather. A look at the jet stream shows the Northern Plains in the core of a long wave trough. This long wave trough, combined with a weak, and dissipating short-wave trough will work to keep the low level clouds lingering around through Wednesday morning. As this short-wave trough moves through the region, there may be enough lift for a few scattered flurries, but nothing to write home about. Temperatures will continue to be around the freezing mark, but with some weak warm air advection occurring, temps might make it a few degrees above freezing this afternoon.
Outlook: The best chance for accumulating snowfall will come Friday night as an Albert Clipper is forecast to skirt the international border, but the exact track has been wobbling over the past few days. None-the-less, this will still have to be watched closely.
Briefing
Low Quality (facebook)
High Quality (285mb)
Outlook: The best chance for accumulating snowfall will come Friday night as an Albert Clipper is forecast to skirt the international border, but the exact track has been wobbling over the past few days. None-the-less, this will still have to be watched closely.
Briefing
Low Quality (facebook)
High Quality (285mb)
- Forecast Group
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)