Date of Award

1-1-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Atmospheric Sciences

First Advisor

Michael Poellot

Abstract

During the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment, a PS MCS traversed north-central Oklahoma on 11 May 2011. In-situ measurements of the stratiform precipitation region were obtained from six horizontal flight legs flow by the University of North Dakota Citation II Weather Research Aircraft in conjunction with measurements collected using a multitude of ground-based radars and a dense balloon sounding network specifically set up for the MC3E project. Winds were nearly unidirectional south-southwesterly over Oklahoma and southern Kansas, which created the parallel stratiform characteristics. Gamma functions were fit to ten-second averaged two-dimensional cloud probe spectra. Comparisons of N0, μ, and λ with values from McFarquhar et al. (2007) show the microphysical processes in the parallel stratiform region are similar to those in trailing stratiform regions. The similarities between the 11 May 2011 PS MCS and the simulated one from Parker (2007) show that basic kinematic features of these events are understood.

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