TRACER-ISO

TRACER-iso

1 June 2022 - 30 September 2022

Lead Scientist: Joseph Galewsky

Observatory: AMF , HOU

This project seeks to use measurements of the stable isotopic composition of water vapor during the ARM TRACER experiment in the Houston area to better understand cloud-aerosol interactions in deep convection. The stable isotopic composition of atmospheric water vapor in this setting reflects the balance between local circulations (e.g., sea breeze, urban heat island) and convective processes, particularly downdrafts, cold pools, and in-cloud ice processes. A particularly exciting aspect of TRACER-iso is the opportunity to use water vapor isotopologues to probe how nucleating aerosols affect the balance between warm-phase and cold-phase processes. These processes likely affect the isotopic composition of water vapor through equilibrium fractionation of liquid droplets, kinetic fractionation of ice particles, and the evaporation or sublimation of hydrometeors. The suite of instruments to be deployed during TRACER will enable us to advance our understanding of how convective processes influence water vapor and its isotopologues; furthermore, we expect that the isotopic measurements will provide new insights into the more conventional meteorological measurements that will be made during the project.