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NCAR Annual Scientific Report Fiscal Year 1986 - Link Page Next PART0002 National Center for Atmospheric Research Annual Scientific Report Fiscal Year 1986 Submitted to National Science Foundation by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research March 1987 /in Contents INTRODUCTION V ATMOSPHERIC ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION DIVISION ·. 1 Significant Accomplishments ............. I a a 0 1 Division Office . · · r0 3 Mesoscale Research Section ............. 0 0 0 0 0 5 Climate Section ................ ... p 0 0 0 13 Large-Scale Dynamics Section ............. 22 Oceanography Section ................ 30 ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY DIVISION ........ 39 Significant Accomplishments .. .... .a.. 40 Precipitation Chemistry, Reactive Gases, and Aerosols Section ........... ......... 41 Atmospheric Gas Measurements Section . .. 48 Global Observations, Modeling, and Optical Techniques Section ...... .. 54 Director's Office .. ........ ... 60 Support and Visitor Section ....... I. a. .. 62 HIGH ALTITUDE OBSERVATORY . 67 Significant Accomplishments .. ................ 67 Coronal/Interplanetary Physics Section a . a... .. 68 Solar Activity and Magnetic Fields Section . .. 77 Solar Interior Section ... ...... ...1 83 Terrestrial Interactions Section . .... a a............ a90 ADVANCED STUDY PROGRAM ..... 101 Significant Accomplishment .................. 101 Visitor Program .... .................... 102 Environmental and Societal Impacts Group ............. 119 Natural Systems Group ............... ... 125 CLOUDS SYSTEMS DIVISION .................. 133 Significant Accomplishments ......... ......... 133 Mesoscale Convective Systems .................. 135 Ice-Cloud Properties and Radiative Interactions ....... 143 Thunderstorm Water Budgets ................. 143 Thunderstorm Dynamics, Hydrometeor Evolution, Hail Growth, and Trajectory Studies .............. 145 iv Thunderstorm Electrification . ......... 151 Cumulus Cloud Systems: Cumulus-Topped Boundary Layers, Gravity Waves, and Convection Initiation .. .... 155 Cumulus Cloud Systems: Entrainment and Mixing, Droplet Spectra, and Downdraft Initiation ....... 160 Model Development and Parameterization ........ 165 Selected Topics in Microphysics ...... 167 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING DIVISION .... .... ... 171 Significant Accomplishments 171 Organization ............... 174 FY 86 Computing Support Provided .. 175 Systems Section ...... 175 Computer Operations and Maintenance Section 179 User Services Section ........... 182 Advanced Methods Section ... 184 Data Support Section ..... 186 ATMOSPHERIC TECHNOLOGY DIVISION 195 Statement of Goals ............ a.. .. 195 Significant Accomplishments ........ .. .. 196 Organization ...... .. 198 Research Aviation Facility ....... 198 ... Field Observing Facility .......... .. .. 207 Global Atmospheric Measurements Program . .. 219 Research Applications Program ... 222 ... Design and Fabrication Services ....... .. 225 ACID DEPOSITION MODELING PROJECT ....... 229 ADMP Regional Acid Deposition Model (RADM) . 229 Significant Accomplishments ......... .. .. 230 Chemistry . .. ~........231 Meteorology .. .. ... .. ... .. 235 ... System Integration and Evaluation ...... .. .. 236 Engineering Models ..... 237 ... PUBLICATIONS . .. 241 Introduction Each year, the NCAR Annual Scientific Report documents this center's continuing efforts to understand the earth's atmosphere, oceans, and the sun, through dedicated research in the broad atmospheric sciences. Under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, and our parent organization, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, NCAR's scientific programs have consistently enhanced national and international efforts to aid people in their delicate relationships with the environment. This report describes the steady progress of ongoing research activities as well as new initiatives. Some representative highlights of the scientific programs during 1986 include: * The development of an improved version of the community climate model enables us to understand better the physical causes of present and past climates. By simulating and analyzing the physical processes involved-such as ocean circulations; energy transfers at the earth's land, water, and ice surfaces; turbulence; convective and stratiform clouds; and radiation-we are progressing toward a better scientific basis for the prediction of future climates on time scales of seasons to centuries or longer. * NCAR scientists have developed new instruments that measure, with highly improved sensitivity and accuracy, trace-gas species under varying atmospheric conditions. These, and related efforts in atmospheric chemistry research, provide vital basic information for the studies of global and regional climate change. * The need for continued observation and interpretation of the sun's variability has motivated NCAR scientists to collaborate in the construction and use of new, highly sophisticated instruments such as the Fourier tachometer (used to measure oscillations of the solar atmosphere and so to deduce information about the properties of the solar interior) and the Stokes polarimeter (used to determine the three-dimensional structure of the sun's magnetic fields). Continued analysis of data from the Stokes II instrument during the past year has set the stage in fiscal year 1987 for beginning construction of the next-generation Stokes III, an instrument with improved spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution. * NCAR made major upgrades of its computational facilities. In addition to the replacement of one of its CRAY-1 computers by the considerably more powerful CRAY X-MP/48 in the fall of 1986, NCAR moved rapidly toward the installation of a new mass storage system, enhancement of the NCAR Graphics Package, and implementation of gateways to high-speed national networks. Introduction * The Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment (GALE), involving scientists from NCAR and 20 universities, studied the physical processes leading to the development of intense winter storms along the eastern U.S. coast. This experiment used Doppler radars, surface mesonetworks, sounding systems, and instrumented aircraft, and was the most intensive support effort ever undertaken by NCAR. These efforts-and many others too numerous to cite-result from NCAR's most valuable resource: a scientific and technical staff of national and international renown and a supporting staff equally committed to excellence. NCAR scientists benefit from numerous interactions with colleagues from the university community. This collaboration will continue to expand as the atmospheric sciences move toward satisfying the future needs of our world's rapidly growing population. NCAR continues to participate in many programs to study the earth's complex environment as a unified, interrelated system. These programs are central to the study of global change, which has recently received national and international emphasis. Problems emerging from earth's economic as well as environmental needs, both international and multidisciplinary in scope, are an ever-increasing challenge to NCAR scientists and their collaborators throughout the world. In order to focus more effectively on solving these broad problems, I have defined a general reorganization of NCAR's research efforts into four scientific and two facility areas. The major areas of science are climate and the coupling of climate with other terrestrial environmental systems, atmospheric chemistry, mesoscale and microscale meteorology, and solar and solar-terrestrial physics. To make progress in all of these scientific areas requires advanced computational and observational facilities, and it is NCAR's mission to develop and provide them to the community. As NCAR intensifies its research efforts and expands its facilities, its programs will evolve and embrace developments in other formal academic disciplines. We are thus committed to leadership, initiative, and collaboration with other colleagues and institutions within the global geosciences community. My enthusiasm for NCAR's potential for future accomplishments is equalled only by the center's splendid reputation for past achievements. Richard A. Anthes Director March 1987 Atmospheric Analysis and Prediction Division In the Atmospheric Analysis and Prediction (AAP) Division, we have studied the atmosphere, oceans, and land surface on a wide range of time and space scales. The focus has been on numerical models complemented by theory and observations. We have directed investigations toward understanding the physical causes of present and past climates and the scientific basis for prediction of future climates for time scales of weeks to centuries or longer. To do this, we have emphasized development of an improved version of the NCAR community climate model (CCM) and applied it to climate simulations and forecast studies. We have analyzed many data sets from satellites or conventional meteorological sources to examine the important physical processes and their connections to model simulations and carried out many other basic studies in ocean circulations, turbulence, and convective and mesoscale storm systems. In addition to performing individual research and collaborating with visitors and scientists in universities and other research institutions around the world, we participate actively in the planning and execution of national and international scientific projects, such as the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), the National Stormscale Operational and Research Meteorology (STORM) Pro- gram, the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE; ISCCP denotes International Satellite
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