Summary of the VIN field program: summer 1979

The VIN project, a co-ordinated research effort by the Department of Environmental Sciences of the University of Virginia, the Illinois State Water Survey, and the Cumulus Group of NOAA (NOAA/NHEML and later NOAA/OWRM) was developed to investigate the association between the low-level wind field and convective activity in the midwestern US and to further explore the relationships between surface convergence and rainfall found by Ulanski and Garstang in Florida. A key element of the project was a field program in central Illinois, designed specifically to collect measurements for a study of the role of low-level and surface convergence in the evolution of precipitating convective systems and for seeking methods which might be useful in the very short-range forecasting of convective rainfall. This report provides a description of the field program conducted in central Illinois during the summer of 1979, the equipment deployed, and the data base which was generated. In addition, a daily summary of synoptic-scale and local weather and of availability of special observations is given in the Appendix for each day during the program.-from STAR, 22(1), 1984