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Convective
and Orographically-induced
Precipitation Study
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Project Summary
The Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS) is
an international field campaign initiated within the German 6-year Priority
Program 1167 “Quantitative Precipitation Forecast PQP (Praecipitationis
Quantitativae Predictio)”. The German Research Foundation (DFG) provides base
funding for PQP. Within this program, 11 universities, 3 research centers, and
two meteorological services are working together on 23 projects in connection
with surface-atmospheric exchange, orographic effects, convection, cloud
microphysics, data assimilation, and parameterization. For the field
experiment, a region in southwestern Germany/eastern France has been selected, where,
on the one hand, severe thunderstorm activity is frequent in summer with
significant amounts of precipitation and risk of flash flood events. On the
other hand, the skill of numerical weather forecasts in this region is
particularly low.
The objective of COPS is to identify the physical and chemical processes
responsible for the deficiencies in QPF over low-mountain regions with the goal
to improve their model representation. Correspondingly, the overarching goal of
COPS is to
Advance the quality of forecasts of orographically-induced convective
precipitation by 4D observations and modeling of its life cycle.
Through
strong collaboration between modelers, instrument PIs, weather forecast
centers, and hydrologists a list of fundamental hypotheses has been developed,
which will be addressed by combining three fundamental components of COPS:
1)
Synergy of unique in-situ and remote sensing instruments with unique
measurement properties on different platforms.
2)
Advanced high-resolution models optimized for operation in complex terrain.
3)
Data assimilation and ensemble prediction systems.
Intense links to international research programs such
as THORPEX and MAP-FDP/D-PHASE have already been established, as these are
considered essential to reach the science goals. The first link ensures the
improvement of the modeling of the large-scale conditions in the COPS region
and studies of the interaction of small-scale and large-scale processes. The
latter provides operational deterministic and probabilistic forecasts for the COPS
region for mission planning but also for a validation of these forecasts with
previously unachieved details.
The strong collaboration between instrument PIs and
the modeling community will ensure a long-term, significant improvement of
operational QPF. COPS also contains a strong
educational component, which ensures that students from schools and
universities will get hands-on experience in the performance of measurements
during an international field campaign. It is expected that these activities
will improve the competence of students in weather and climate education at
schools and universities.
If the science goal of COPS is accomplished, advanced
process understanding will lead to improved QPF in a critical region where
skillful prediction of rain is especially important for economy and society. We
expect that the results can also be applied in other regions of interest all
over the world.
COPS is
supported by an intitiative of German Helmholtz Centers within the framework of
the “Transport and Chemical Conversion in Convective Systems” project TRACKS. The HGF centers involved are:
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt,
- Forschungszentrum Jülich,
- Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, and
- Geoforschungzentrum Potsdam.
The mid-latitude experiment within the TRACKS three stage large-scale
research project to be performed from arctic to tropical regions is aimed on
experimentally studying convective systems from small-scale turbulence to deep
cloud convection in thunderstorm complexes and fronts with regard to
- their relevant physical and
chemical processes,
- their capabilities of transporting energy, water, and anthropogenic and
biopgenic trace gases, and
- their impact on climate in various climatic zones.
The joined COPS-TRACKS projects offers a measuring
strategy combined with a high level set of instruments to investigate both,
convection with subsequent precipitation and the transport capability and
efficiency of convective systems.
COPS Project Office:
Prof. Dr. Volker Wulfmeyer and Dr. Andreas Behrendt
Institute of Physics and Meteorology (IPM)
Hohenheim University
Garbenstr. 30
D-70599 Stuttgart
Phone: +49-711-459-22150
Fax: +49-711-459-22461
Email: spp-iop@uni-hohenheim.de
Web: http://www.uni-hohenheim.de/spp-iop/
COPS Workshops
COPS Public Webpage (press information and public outreach)
Links to
related projects:
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DFG Priority Program
1167
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GOP
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MAP D-PHASE
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TRACKS, University of Karlsruhe
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CSIP, University of Leeds
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IHOP_2002
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MAP
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THORPEX