While significant attention during a campaign such as MC3E is paid to aircraft and ground-based radar operations, the science that benefits from those platforms benefits equally from the observations of dense networks of surface meteorological instruments. During the MC3E campaign, an extensive network of surface platforms, including ARM and NASA video disdrometers, dot the northern Oklahoma landscape, representing an impressive effort toward capturing detailed precipitation insights. Such observations provide accurate point measurements of raindrop size and rainfall intensity over a large area around the SGP Central Facility as well as calibration anchors for aircraft and radar systems.
The ARM video disdrometers (2DVD) operate by capturing drops falling through an opening over which the electronics measure the speed, size, and shape of individual particles passing through. To sample each raindrop, this requires several checks for calibration and system performance. During a recent clear day, Mary Jane Bartholomew (mentor, ARM disdrometer instruments) provided students a very different view under the hood of these systems on one such calibration check. We are all looking forward to many unique looks at precipitation microphysics based on the continued operation of these systems in Oklahoma rainfalls.
– Scott Giangrande (MC3E Co-Investigator)