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.
C3LOUD-Ex Phase 2 Group Picture
C3LOUD-Ex studied supercellular thunderstorms in Northeastern Colorado. This picture was taken of the Supercell on July 17, 2016
Graduate students Peter Marinescu and Leah Grant and Monfort Professor Susan van den Heever visually track a launched weather balloon into a nearby storm. Graduate Student Ben Toms watches the real-time data come in from the launched balloon.
Two C3LOUD-Ex drones in flight observing the storm-produced cold pool on July 18, 2016.
(from left) Monfort Professor Susan van den Heever and graduate students Stacey Hitchcock, Leah Grant, and Minnie Park quickly pose next to a portable surface station that is capturing temperature, pressure, and wind data ahead of the supercell on July 17, 2016.
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).