Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere Radar and Satellite (Remote Sensing) Data Products

Tropopause-overshooting convection is also identified using GOES visible and infrared geostationary satellite imagery. These products include derived cloud top altitude, convective overshoot probability, and visible texture rating product and are produced in 10-minute intervals. The product domain extends over North America and encompasses most of Mexico and Canada.

The satellite overshoot products complement the GridRad products and enable an understanding of overshooting that occurs outside the NEXRAD network. Data collection for this product is ongoing and currently only features the first deployment. Each summer the North American Monsoon Anticyclone (NAMA) dominates the circulation of the North-Western Hemisphere and acts to partially confine and isolate air from the surrounding atmosphere.

Strong convective storms in the NAMA regularly reach altitudes deep into the lower stratosphere, with some ascending above 20 km. These storms carry water and pollutants from the troposphere into the otherwise very dry stratosphere, where they can have a significant impact on radiative and chemical processes, potentially including destruction of stratospheric ozone. The Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) field campaign is a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital research project aimed at investigating these thunderstorms.

DCOTSS utilizes NASA’s ER-2 aircraft and conducted two ~8-week science deployments based out of Salina, KS spanning early to late summer.