A Tour of Events of Interest during the TRACER campaign

Description

The TRacking Aerosol Convection interactions Experiment (TRACER) took place in the Houston, TX region from 01 October 2021 through 30 September 2022 with an intensive operational period (IOP) during June through September 2022. The Houston, TX region was selected for the TRACER deployment due to the high frequency of occurrence of isolated convective cells and the diversity of aerosol sources, together representing a natural laboratory for the study of aerosol-convection interactions. During TRACER the first ARM Mobile Facility was deployed at La Porte, TX, a region that experiences significant and diverse aerosol loading from industrial and urban sources. During the IOP, the C-band ARM Scanning Precipitation Radar (C-SAPR) operated in an automated cell-tracking mode providing high-resolution observations of the evolution of convective cells over their lifecycle. An ancillary site was also deployed during the IOP, in Guy, TX, collecting aerosol and meteorological measurements in a rural environment. A number of guest and inter-agency instruments were also deployed during the IOP enhancing the ARM sites’ capabilities and helping to quantify the regional variability in important aerosol, cloud and meteorological parameters.  In this presentation, we highlight several “events of interest” during the TRACER campaign including examples of isolated convective cells, shallow-to-deep convective evolution, boundary layer diurnal evolution, sea- and bay-breeze convective initiation and propagation, new particle formation events and significant dust transport. TRACER and related measurements associated with these diverse events will be showcased with the goal of defining ARM data epochs around interesting events towards encouraging collaborative analysis and modeling activities.