Convective Variability during the 2018 PISTON Field Campaign

The 2018 PISTON field campaign, which took place in the open waters of the West Pacific during the months of Aug-Oct, observed a broad spectrum of weather conditions. Large scale events such as typhoon and easterly wave passages exhibited influence on small scale variability in precipitation structure and frequency observed on the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. A wide variety of scientific instruments were on board the ship during this campaign, recording measurements of oceanographic and atmospheric processes across multiple scales. By combining local measurements (air-sea fluxes, backscatter and doppler velocity measurements from a vertically-pointing w-band radar, atmospheric profiles from 3-hourly radiosonde launches) with dual-polarimetric, doppler radar measurements from the CSU shipborne radar SEAPOL, as well as incorporating large-scale reanalysis and satellite data, an investigation of the convective variability observed during the field campaign will be presented.