At the Ponca City YMCA on Sunday, two teams met in a quest for glory, fame, and a rhinestone-bedecked garden gnome. The NASA team, led by Steve “Lightning” Rutledge, took on the DOE team captained by Pavlos “PK” Kollias. The teams, whose names were inspired by the two main collaborating institutions of the MC3E campaign,…

Long before the MC3E scientists arrived in Ponca City and descended upon the SGP Central Facility (CF), there was a great deal of talk about the “dream scenario.” The golden case of all golden cases was described as a well defined line of convective storms with a large stratiform rain region that propagated directly over…

When my adviser, Ed Zipser, suggested that I spend at least two weeks in Oklahoma forecasting for MC3E, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I have participated in several field programs, but never in the role of forecaster. I lived in Oklahoma for four years while I completed my bachelor’s degree at OU, but…

Field campaign folklore tells us that if the climatology for a region suggests you expect a certain weather regime and you venture into the field looking for those conditions you are bound to get something else. The history of atmospheric science field campaigns is littered with those looking for one thing and finding another. MC3E…

During the MC3E campaign, ARM scientists are exposed to several cloud and precipitation monitoring platforms deployed around the SGP Central Facility near Lamont, Oklahoma. For exploring convective storm evolution, some of the most sophisticated (and photogenic) ARM instruments are the newly installed X-SAPR radar platforms. The ARM X-SAPR network over the SGP consists of three…

MC3E-ers enjoying a clear night at the ballpark. Although most MC3E instruments operate 24/7, occasionally our MC3E mission scientists and students need a break from the action to explore the surrounding Oklahoma region. Similarly, since MC3E is largely a cloud and precipitation experiment, sometimes the atmosphere does not cooperate. On one particularly clear campaign afternoon,…

While significant attention during a campaign such as MC3E is paid to aircraft and ground-based radar operations, the science that benefits from those platforms benefits equally from the observations of dense networks of surface meteorological instruments. During the MC3E campaign, an extensive network of surface platforms, including ARM and NASA video disdrometers, dot the northern…

Spring is a time of change across much of the United States. Cool dry air at the surface is refreshed by a warm, moist gulf flow while the upper atmosphere remains seasonally cool. This sets the stage for a convective playground like no other, and the folk here for MC3E take play time seriously! The…

MC3E sonde launch. Photo courtesy of S. Collis.As a fitting celebration of Earth Day, the MC3E field campaign officially began at 6:30 AM local time with the successful launch of radiosondes from all five boundary facilities and the Central Facility. Our daily morning briefing was focused on the possibility of aircraft operations as the ER-2…