A Storm Safari in Subtropical South America: Proyecto RELAMPAGO

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the experimental design, execution, education and public outreach, data collection, and initial scientific results from the Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO) field campaign. RELAMPAGO was a major field campaign conducted in Córdoba and Mendoza provinces in Argentina, and western Rio Grande do Sul State in Brazil in 2018-2019 that involved more than 200 scientists and students from the US, Argentina, and Brazil. This campaign was motivated by the physical processes and societal impacts of deep convection that frequently initiates in this region, often along the complex terrain of the Sierras de Córdoba and Andes, and often grows rapidly upscale into dangerous storms that impact society. Observed storms during the experiment produced copious hail, intense flash flooding, extreme lightning flash rates and other unusual lightning phenomena, but few tornadoes. The 5 distinct scientific foci of RELAMPAGO: convection initiation, severe weather, upscale growth, hydrometeorology, and lightning and electrification are described, as are the deployment strategies to observe physical processes relevant to these foci. The campaign’s international cooperation, forecasting efforts, and mission planning strategies enabled a successful data collection effort. In addition, the legacy of RELAMPAGO in South America, including extensive multi-national education, public outreach, and social media data-gathering associated with the campaign, is summarized.

Characterizing Charge Structure in Central Argentina Thunderstorms During RELAMPAGO Utilizing a New Charge Layer Polarity Identification Method

“…During the five-month period the RELAMPAGO LMA network was operating in Cordoba, Argentina. Different storm modes were observed and included isolated convection, multicellular storms, supercells, and mesoscale convective systems (Nesbitt et al 2021). In order to demonstrate the capability of the algorithm to infer their charge structures, examples of distinct Cordoba cases and their evolution in time are presented.…”

“…This study aims to characterize the charge structure in the Central Argentina region for the first time, utilizing a large dataset, as it is a key science goal of the RELAMPAGO (Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations) field campaign (Nesbitt et al, 2021). This novel research is achieved by first developing and testing a new automated method to retrieve thunderstorm charge layer polarity using Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) source and flash data, which is described in this paper.…”

“…As part of the RELAMPAGO field campaign (Nesbitt et al, 2021), an LMA of 11 sensors was deployed by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to the eastern side of the Sierra de Cordoba mountains in the province of Cordoba, Central Argentina, from mid-November 2018 to mid-April 2019 (Lang et al, 2020). RELAMPAGO LMA data was used in this study for development and validation of the charge layer inference method, and characterization of the charge structure climatology in the Cordoba warm season.…”

Raindrop Size Spectrum in Deep Convective Regions of the Americas

“…For example, the NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission-Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere (TRMM-LBA) experiment conducted in 1999 in southwestern Amazonia [43,[50][51][52] and the Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon) field campaign conducted in central Amazonia during 2014 and 2015 [53][54][55] collected DSD observations. Moreover, the DOE ARM Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) and Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO) field campaigns conducted during the austral warm season of 2018-2019 collected disdrometer observations in west-central Argentina near the Sierras de Córdoba (SDC) [56,57]. This north-south-oriented mountain range east of the Andes in subtropical South America is known to frequently initiate deep convection [56][57][58][59][60][61].…”

“…Moreover, the DOE ARM Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) and Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO) field campaigns conducted during the austral warm season of 2018-2019 collected disdrometer observations in west-central Argentina near the Sierras de Córdoba (SDC) [56,57]. This north-south-oriented mountain range east of the Andes in subtropical South America is known to frequently initiate deep convection [56][57][58][59][60][61]. In addition, measurements from the Integrated Precipitation and Hydrology Experiment (IPHEx), which was conducted in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina (USA), formed an extensive DSD database for midlatitude mountainous terrain [62].…”