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ERICA
Scientific Objectives: -Understanding the fundamental physical processes occuring in the atmosphere during rapid intensification of cyclones at sea. -Determining those physical processes that need to be incorporated into dynamical prediction models. -Identifying measurable precursors as necessary input into the initial analysis for accurate and detailed operational model predictions. Project Description: The Experiment on Rapidly Intensifying Cyclones over the Atlantic (ERICA), under the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Heavy Weather at Sea Accelerated Research Initiative program, is a study to determine physical mechanisms and processes which lead to explosive wintertime storms developing over the Atlantic Ocean. ERICA is a follow-up study to the Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment (GALE), conducted in the winter of 1986. Other contributors include several departments of the Navy and the Air Force as well as the National Weather Service (NWS), National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS), Environmental Research Laboratory (ERL), Department of Transportation (DOT), Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Air Weather Service (AWS), Atmospheric Environment Service (AES) of Toronto, Canada, along with universities and research organizations in the United States and Canada. Operations are being carried out at three main centers; the World Weather Building, Camp Springs, Maryland, Maritimes Weather Center, Bedford, Nova Scotia and Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine. The field phase of ERICA began 1 December 1988 and ended 26 February 1989. The experiment was designed to focus on east coast winter storms that rapidly intensified over a few hours and a few hundred kilometers and deepened tens of millibars per six hours. These ERICA-type storms in the previous 22 years before the field study mainly developed over the northwestern Atlantic from Washington D.C. to St Johns, Newfoundland. Data Sources: The ERICA observing region covers the eastern half of the United States, similar to that observed during GALE, as well as southeastern Canada and the northwestern Atlantic west of 50 degrees west. Rawinsonde observations are being supplied by the NWS and NCAR (CLASS-Cross Chain Loran Atmospheric Sounding System). Canada's AES and military are providing standard meteorological parameters. The satellite observations are being taken from GOES-6 and GOES-7, NOAA-10 and NOAA-11, DMSP-F8 and F9 and GEOSAT which provide radiance measurements. Surface observations are being supplied by the standard NWS network along with the FAA, Coast Guard and military stations. Nova Scotia has also set up a ground-based network (Mesonet) to measure temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction. The meteorological buoy network is supported by NOAA, Navy, AES and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutite (WHOI) measuring surface and sub-surface parameters. Ship data is also being obtained and quality controlled by the NWS and the ECMWF. Aircraft observations are being provided by the Air Force, Navy, NOAA and NCAR; the Air Force flights deploying omega dropsondes and gathering cyclonic-scale data over the ocean, the NCAR missions accumulating jet stream structure data that could impact the rapid intensification phase, the NOAA flights over the low-level cyclone, frontal zones, updraft zones and convective regions, and the Navy missions deploying drifting buoys and dropwindsondes. Radar observations are being provided by NWS, NOAA (Doppler/non Doppler) and the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory (Doppler). Data Products: Drexel University is the central archive and disrtibution center for ERICA data. The ERICA Data Center (EDC) is funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). 1. AIRCRAFT: NCAR (flight level), NOAA (flight level,doppler/nondoppler, cloud physics) and AWS(flight level) data are available in digitized form. Color slides of NOAA radar data are also available. 2. SOUNDING: Master sounding file containing 10mb interval data (hydrostatic height, temperature, relative humidity, wind direction and speed) is available in digitized form. Other products, which include NCDC upper air, CYCLE and Yarmouth (Canada), CLASS and LeSonde (NCAR), Dropsonde (AWS), Wind Profiler (Pennsylvania State University) and Marine (Navy) sounding data are also available in digitized format. Products available on hardcopy include Skew-Ts of ERICA soundings, Constant Pressure Charts of ERICA Soundings, NMC North American Constant Pressure Analyses, NCAR Skew-Ts of CLASS soundings, and NCAR Skew-Ts of LeSonde dropwindsondes. 3. RADAR: Canadian data from Halifax and Holyrood is available in digitized form. Hardcopies are also available for these sites along with the NWS sites. 4. SATELLITE: GOES-6 and GOES-7 imagery and Satellite Wind data, NOAA-10 and NOAA-11 SST Analyses (from AVHRR) and TOVS soundings, GEOSAT Surface Wind data and DMSP F8 and F9 soundings are available in digitized format. Other products include an ERICA Satellite Atlas, Videotapes of GOES imagery, hardcopy of NESDIS SST Analyses and slides of SST Analyses and Difference fields. 5. BOUNDARY LAYER: Dr. Fred Sanders' Surface Pressure Analyses, NCDC Precipitation observations, NCDC Hourly Surface data, Nova Scotia Mesonet data, Canadian Hourly Surface data, a Master Marine data tape containing buoy and SST analyses, NCDC Surface Marine data, Canadian Marine data, Navy Surface reports and AES, WHOI and NDBC buoy data are available in digitized form. Other products include NMC Surface Analyses, Maritime Weather Center Surface Analyses, Dr. Fred Sanders' Surface Analyses, NWS Observed Snow Cover Maps and NCDC Ships' Logs available on hardcopy. *** The ERICA Compact Disc (CD)/ROM containing Aircraft, Sounding, Satellite, Boundary, Documentation and Access Software, Text of ERICA Data Users Guide and NCAR Terrain Data is available from the ERICA Data Center and is accessible from both IBM and APPLE PC computers as well as workstations. Project Archive Contact: Edward Hartnett ERICA Data Center Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science Drexel University Philadelphia, PA 19104 215-895-2786 OMNET > ERICA.DATA.CENTER INTERNET > ED@CONVEX.DREXEL.EDU (129.25.1.200) Project Director Contact: Dr. Carl Kreitzberg Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science Drexel University 32nd & Chestnut St. Philadelphia, PA 19104 215-895-2726 References: Hadlock, R., and C. W. Kreitzberg, 1988: The Experiment on Rapidly Intensifying Cyclones over the Atlantic (ERICA) Field Study: Objectives and Plans. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 69, 1309-1320. Hartnett, Ed, 1990: ERICA Data Users Guide. WWW: "http://einstein.drexel.edu/"