Swabian MOSES 2021: An interdisciplinary field campaign for investigating convective storms and their event chains

Abstract

The Neckar Valley and the Swabian Jura in southwest Germany comprise a hotspot for severe convective storms, causing tens of millions of euros in damage each year. Possible reasons for the high frequency of thunderstorms and the associated event chain across compartments were investigated in detail during the hydro-meteorological field campaign Swabian MOSES carried out between May and September 2021. Researchers from various disciplines established more than 25 temporary ground-based stations equipped with state-of-the-art in situ and remote sensing observation systems, such as lidars, dual-polarization X- and C-band Doppler weather radars, radiosondes including stratospheric balloons, an aerosol cloud chamber, masts to measure vertical fluxes, autosamplers for water probes in rivers, and networks of disdrometers, soil moisture, and hail sensors. These fixed-site observations were supplemented by mobile observation systems, such as a research aircraft with scanning Doppler lidar, a cosmic ray neutron sensing rover, and a storm chasing team launching swarmsondes in the vicinity of hailstorms. Seven Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs) were conducted on a total of 21 operating days. An exceptionally high number of convective events, including both unorganized and organized thunderstorms such as multicells or supercells, occurred during the study period. This paper gives an overview of the Swabian MOSES (Modular Observation Solutions for Earth Systems) field campaign, briefly describes the observation strategy, and presents observational highlights for two IOPs.

First implementation of a new cross-disciplinary observation strategy for heavy precipitation events from formation to flooding

“…This strategy not only increases the probability of encountering the desired weather extremes, but also releases synergies in the use of equipment, personnel, and scientific knowledge gain. As the follow-up campaign scheduled for 2020 in the Mueglitz catchment fell victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, the insights gained with this first test campaign were incorporated into the Swabian MOSES campaign of 2021 (Glaser et al 2022;Kunz et al 2022).…”

The impact of aerosols and model grid spacing on a supercell storm from Swabian MOSES 2021

“…The field campaign Swabian MOSES was dedicated to hydro-meteorological measurements and was conducted by five Helmholtz research centres, three universities, and the DWD between May and September 2021 under the coordination of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Kunz et al, 2022). The focus was on two hydro-meteorological extremes: (a) convective storms associated with heavy rainfall and hail, and (b) large-scale heat waves and associated droughts.…”

“…Recent studies have also shown that different assumptions for the amount of CCNs are relevant for quantitative precipitation forecasting and could be included in convective-scale ensemble prediction systems (Barthlott et al, 2022b;Baur et al, 2022;Keil et al, 2019;Matsunobu et al, 2022;Schneider et al, 2019). During summer 2021, the Swabian Modular Observation Solutions for Earth Systems (MOSES) field campaign was conducted in southwestern Germany (Kunz et al, 2022). On June 23, 2021, a supercell initiated in the southern Black Forest and passed directly over several observational sites.…”

The land–atmosphere feedback observatory: a new observational approach for characterizing land–atmosphere feedback

“…Interested external partners can benefit from our sensor synergy and join through collaboration. For example, LAFO was one observation site in the frame of the field campaign Swabian MOSES that took place in spring 2021 (Kunz et al, 2022). During this field experiment the Atmospheric Raman Temperature and Humidity Sounder (ARTHUS) was operated to capture atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles next to wind and cloud observations with DL and a Doppler cloud radar.…”