Relampago Cacti

What is Relampago Cacti

Two coordinated projects, one sky

Relampago Cacti brought together two coordinated field projects that observed the same storms from different vantage points in central Argentina. The name combines a lightning study with a cloud and aerosol study.

Relampago

Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations. The word means lightning flash in Spanish and Portuguese.

Relampago was funded by the US National Science Foundation to bring US resources to the field to observe convective storms that produce high impact weather in the lee of the Andes mountains in Argentina. It also involved significant contributions from NASA, NOAA, Argentina (MINyCT), Brazil (CNPq and FAPESP), and Chile (CONICYT), as well as universities across the region, Argentina's national meteorological service (Servicio Meteorologico Nacional, SMN) and Brazil's space agency (INPE), which governs Brazil's weather and climate prediction service (CPTEC).

The Relampago Extended Observing Period ran from 15 August 2018 to 30 April 2019, while the Intensive Observing Period ran from 1 November to 15 December 2018.

Cacti

Clouds, Aerosols, and Complex Terrain Interactions.

Cacti is a US Department of Energy (DOE) funded project to study orographic clouds and their representation in multi scale models from 15 August 2018 to 31 March 2019. It involved the AMF1 cloud aerosol radiation observatory, the Mobile Aerosol Observing System (MAOS), the CSAPR2 precipitation radar, and a surface meteorological network.

Cacti also brought intensive airborne observations during Relampago through the deployment of the G1 aircraft. The two projects together provide a detailed view of how clouds, aerosols, and deep convection interact over complex terrain.

Field design

Experimental Design

The campaign combined long term observations with short, intense observing windows timed to the most active part of the storm season.

15 August 2018 to 30 April 2019
Relampago extended observing period

A sustained observing effort across the lee of the Andes, documenting the environment in which convective systems initiate and grow.
1 November to 15 December 2018
Relampago intensive observing period

The concentrated phase of the campaign, with the full instrument suite and aircraft deployed to sample the strongest storms of the season.
15 August 2018 to 31 March 2019
Cacti deployment

Orographic cloud and aerosol observations gathered alongside Relampago, tracking the interaction between terrain, aerosols, and convection.

Instrumentation

AMF1 observatory

Cloud, aerosol, and radiation measurements at a fixed supersite.

Mobile Aerosol Observing System

The MAOS platform for detailed aerosol characterization.

CSAPR2 precipitation radar

Scanning radar providing the three dimensional structure of storms.

G1 research aircraft

Airborne observations collected during the intensive observing period.

Surface meteorological network

Ground stations recording the near surface environment of each storm.

Why it matters

Programmatic Rationale

Strengthen the links between fundamental research and societal needs through investments and partnerships. This strategic objective aims to develop connections between new insights and global challenges, often involving essential interdisciplinary collaborations, prototypes, and technologies. It also entails educating a workforce capable of using and adapting discoveries to meet society's needs.
NSF strategic objective for partnerships

Program purpose

The purpose of Relampago Cacti is to advance understanding of how convective systems initiate, organize, and evolve over the complex terrain of Southeast South America, to improve their prediction, and to document their impacts on society. The project provides a forum for researchers to discuss and share their knowledge and experience in the field of atmospheric science, and a platform to compare observations with the models used for weather and climate prediction.

Project steering committee

A project steering committee is a group of senior stakeholders responsible for overseeing project direction and providing guidance and support. The committee brings together members from senior management, executive sponsors, and other stakeholders. It helps ensure that the project remains on target and aligned with its overall goals, offers insight and advice to the project team, and supports delivery on time and to the expected quality standards. The committee is often used to make key decisions and to provide strategic guidance to the project team.

Our expert team

Scientists leading the campaign

The campaign is guided by researchers from leading atmospheric science institutions.

Stephen Nesbitt

University of Illinois

Ruby Leung

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Robert Houze Jr.

University of Washington

ABI band 2 visible channel

GOES 16 rapid scan

GOES 16 Rapid Scan Imagery for Relampago

This 30 second rapid scan animation from GOES 16 demonstrates the very high spatial and temporal resolution of the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). The rapid scan sector was set over north central Argentina, which includes the city of Cordoba, where it captured some expected severe storms during an active late summer weather pattern. This region is known to have some of the most extreme storms in the world.

The animation was created with the ABI band 2, its primary visible channel. Many interesting and important features of the near storm environment and the convective clouds themselves are readily apparent. Differential motion between the developing thunderstorms and the low level clouds indicates converging low level air, which leads to the rapid development of these storms. Apparent rotation in the boiling cloud tops suggests intense updrafts or vertical motion. Severe hail was reported with at least one of the storms near the center of the domain around 2130 UTC.

This movie provides a proof of concept for the Relampago field campaign. Relampago is an international project set for 2018 to 2019, whose goal is to study high impact weather and hydrometeorological extremes in central Argentina. It also provides additional validation data sets to assess the ABI and the Geostationary Lightning Mapper. This data collection represents the first test outside the continental US of the rapid scan capability of the ABI on severe local storms.

Work with the campaign

Partner with the campaign

We are confident that you will find some of the best experiences by partnering with us. The campaign welcomes collaboration with research groups, meteorological services, and institutions working on severe weather and its impacts.

Campaign coordinationLogistics, data access, and field operations for Relampago Cacti.
Institutional partnersResearch groups and national meteorological services across the region.
Data and imageryRequests relating to the GOES 16 rapid scan data set and campaign observations.

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