IPHEx 2014: Observations of Orographic Precipitation Processes in the Southern Appalachians

Ana Paula Barros, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Urbana, United States, Walter Arthur Petersen, NASA MSFC, Science Research and Projects Office, Huntsville, AL, United States, Timothy J Lang, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, United States, Anna Maria Wilson, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E), La Jolla, United States, Yajuan Duan, Duke University, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Durham, NC, United States, Stephen W Nesbitt, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Atmospheric Sciences, Urbana, IL, United States, Robert Cifelli, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, Mathew Schwaller, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, David B Wolff, NASA GSFC/WFF Code 610.W, Wallops Island, United States, Douglas Miller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Urbana, IL, United States, Jonathan J Gourley, NOAA/OAR National Severe Storms Laboratory, Oklahoma City, United States and Markus Petters, North Carolina State University at Raleigh, Raleigh, United States
Abstract:
The focus of the Integrated Precipitation and Hydrology Experiment (IPHEx) in the Southern Appalachians and including the Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions of North Carolina was to characterize warm season orographic precipitation regimes, and to investigate the relationship between precipitation regimes and hydrologic processes in regions of complex terrain.

IPHEX consisted of two phases: 1) an extended observing period (EOP) from October 2013 through October 2014 including a science-grade high elevation raingauge network, in addition to the fixed regional observing system; a disdrometer network consisting of twenty separate clusters; three mobile profiling facilities including MicroRain Radars, microwave radiometers, radiosondes, and microphysics characterization instruments; and 2) an intense observing period (IOP) from May–July of 2014 post GPM launch focusing on 4D mapping of precipitation structure during which NASA’s NPOL S-band scanning dual-polarization radar, the dual-frequency Ka-Ku, dual polarimetric, Doppler radar (D3R), four additional MRRs, and the NOAA NOXP radar were deployed along with the long-term fixed instrumentation. During the IOP, high altitude and “in the column” measurements were conducted using the NASA ER-2 and the UND Citation aircraft. By taking place after the launch of the GPM satellite, IPHEx provided the first opportunity for coordinated observations among all platforms. Here, we present a first synthesis of ground-based observations of precipitation processes and science findings from IPHEx, including a 4D physically-based integration of multisensor observations incorporating DPR Level 1 products in the inner mountain region that captures the complex vertical structure of microphysical processes modulated by orography, and a first interrogation of GMI and DPR Level 2 products in the IPHEX domain.

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