RAPID: North Dakota Field Measurement Campaign to Improve Understanding of Fog Processes

Fog is a high-impact weather hazard over many locations worldwide causing serious disruptions to road traffic, marine transport, and especially aviation operations. The main impact of fog is visibility reduction that can lead to financial damages, severe road accidents, devastating aviation disasters, and loss of lives. Therefore, improved understanding of fog formation and dissipation has broad societal impacts since such knowledge will result in improved atmospheric models that enable a more reliable and efficient transportation system.

Such improvements are especially critical for routine utilization of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in transportation since flights need to be near the ground and out of sight of the operator. Accurate and detailed information on current, and near future atmospheric conditions, help to ensure safe and effective deployment of UAS platforms. Educating students to provide this necessary atmospheric information prepares them for emerging jobs and enables them to provide needed scientific advances.

The genesis and evolution of fog is the result of many atmospheric processes (cloud, turbulence, radiation), which make accurate modeling of fog a challenge. Accurate measurements of atmospheric conditions are necessary for improved understanding of fog processes and related atmospheric interactions (clouds, aerosols, turbulence). Obtaining a better understanding of fog processes enables improvements in numerical weather prediction modeling.

The project will conduct atmospheric observations during two month-long intensive observational periods at Hector International Airport (Fargo, North Dakota), and the surrounding area, during the peak period of fall and spring fog events. The field projects will deploy a complex suite of meteorological, cloud, and aerosol instruments at surface locations, and on balloon, aircraft, and weatherized UAS platforms.

Utilizing these airborne platforms enables detailed observations of the vertical structure of the boundary layer, which will provide a unique database of measurements available to the scientific community for analysis.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.