Mobile radiosonde deployments during the mesoscale predictability experiment (mpex) rapid and adaptive sampling of upscale.convective feedbacks

The Mesoscale Predictability Experiment (MPEX) was a field campaign conducted 15 May through 15 June 2013 within the Great Plains region of the United States. Teams from Purdue University (PU), the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), Colorado State University (CSU), and Texas A&M University (TAMU) fielded mobile radiosonde systems during MPEX. The iMet sondes were preconfigured with four frequency options, and iMet provided MPEX investigators with a separate batch of sondes with four additional frequencies. To examine the viability of intermixing the two different sondes for environmental sampling, a comprehensive intercomparison between the iMet and Vaisala sondes was made prior to the field campaign. The PU soundings at 1815 UTC, 1958 UTC and 2045 UTC which were collected in the preconvective environment and then downwind of the supercell, show a gradual lowering of the inversion and boundary layer depth. During typical CDE deployments, the upsonde teams executed time-coordinated sonde launches at 30-min intervals at locations relative to the convective-storm motion vector. Such storm-relative sampling was facilitated by the use of a combination of mobile communications.