C3LOUD-Ex Field Campaign

C3LOUD-Ex, the CSU Convective Cloud Outflows and UpDrafts Experiment is a CSU Monfort-Funded field project. C3LOUD-Ex phase 1 took place in July 2016. and Phase 2 took place in May-June 2017.

C3LOUD-Ex has been highlighted in SOURCE, CSU's online news source.

Phase 1

C3LOUD-Ex phase 1 took place in July 2016 in Northeastern Colorado and Southern Wyoming. In this phase, students from the van den Heever, Schumacher, Rutledge, and Schubert research groups (see people involved here) participated in phase one of the CSU Convective CLoud Outflows and UpDrafts Experiment (C3LOUD-Ex), a field campaign in Northeastern Colorado and Southern Wyoming led by Monfort Professor Susan C. van den Heever. C3LOUD-Ex is focused on observing the updraft speeds (rising air motions) of thunderstorms and the cold pools (cold outflow air near the surface) that they produce. Updrafts and cold pools are often not well represented in weather prediction models, thus limiting our abilities to accurately predict life-threatening severe storms. The measurements that are being made in C3LOUD-Ex will greatly assist in improving these weather prediction models. Below are images from Phase 1 of C3LOUD-Ex.

Phase 2

C3LOUD-Ex Phase 2 took place between May and June 2017, and again involved graduate students at Colorado State University traveling through Northeastern Colorado, Southern Wyoming, and Western Nebraska in order to sample the atmosphere around and in storms. In this phase of the field campaign, we targeted strong storms in order to sample their cold outflows (cold pools) and rising air motions (updrafts).