The Cold Pools of CAMP2Ex

Cold pools and their associated outflow boundaries, or gust fronts, play a critical role in convective initiation, organization, longevity and intensity. They also impact sensible and latent heat fluxes and are important in the lofting and mixing of sea salt and other aerosol particles off the surface. Cold pools are formed through evaporation and melting processes, and dissipate in the presence of mixing and surface fluxes. As such, the strength of cold pools is dependent on the microphysical characteristics of the parent storm including hydrometeor size distributions and aerosol loading; the local environment including the relative humidity, stability and dry layers; and land surface characteristics including temperature and moisture. Despite the importance of cold pools, the depth, strength and extent of cold pools are often poorly captured in high-resolution numerical models. This is in part because of the ongoing challenges in accurately parameterizing microphysical and land surface processes, and in part because of the lack of high spatial and temporal observations of cold pool features.

NASA's recent Cloud, Aerosol, and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP²Ex), conducted over the Philippines and surrounding regions in the late boreal summer of 2019, provided an unprecedented opportunity to examine tropical maritime cold pools with a large suite of collocated remote and in situ sensors. While cold pools were observed on many of the 19 CAMP²Ex research flights, four of the CAMP²Ex research flights in particular offered numerous multi-instrument observations of cold pools at relatively high spatial and temporal frequency. The characteristics of these four cold pools cases, as well as the insights of cold pool processes gained from the analyses of the multiplatform observations will be presented.