| Project | Location | Focus |
|---|
| Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information: AQPI |
Pacific Coast |
Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information (AQPI) is a regional project awarded to NOAA and collaborating partners by the California Department of Water Resources . The AQPI system consists of improved weather radar data for precipitation estimation and short-term nowcasting (0-1 hours); additional surface measurements of precipitation, streamflow and soil moisture; and a suite of forecast modeling systems to improve lead time on precipitation and coastal Bay inundation from extreme storms–especially moisture-laden atmospheric rivers. |
| ATOMIC |
North Atlantic east of Barbados |
From early January through mid-February 2020, NOAA partnered with several universities and other programs to lead the Atlantic Tradewind Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC). The field study will take place in the tropical North Atlantic east of Barbados and investigate cloud and air-sea interaction processes with the goal of advancing understanding and prediction of U.S. weather and climate. ATOMIC is the U.S. complement to the European field campaign called EUREC4A. This collaborative effort involves a unique combination of ships, piloted and remotely-controlled aircraft, and remotely-controlled ocean vehicles to characterize ocean and atmospheric properties. A suite of instruments was deployed from NOAA's research ship Ronald H. Brown and WP-3D Orion "Hurricane Hunter" aircraft, and on land. |
| El Niño Rapid Response (ENRR) field campaign |
The central-eastern Tropical Pacific and the US West coast |
The major El Niño of 2015-2016 presented an unprecedented scientific opportunity for NOAA to accelerate advances in understanding and predictions of an extreme climate event and its impacts through research conducted while the event was ongoing. NOAA's Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) played a central role in the NOAA El Niño Rapid Response (ENRR) field campaign to determine key mechanisms affecting El Niño's impacts on the U.S. and their implications for improving NOAA's observational systems, models and predictions. The ENRR campaign spanned the central and eastern tropical Pacific to California. Multiple types of observing resources collected measurements from the air, ocean, and ground between January and March of 2016. |
| MOSAiC |
Arctic |
The Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) was an international research expedition to study the physical, chemical, and biological processes that coupled the Arctic atmosphere, sea ice, ocean, and ecosystem. Beginning in fall 2019, the RV Polarstern icebreaker drifted with [was frozen in] Arctic sea ice over a year, and served as an intensive observatory, allowing scientists to collect data in every season. Surrounding the ship was a distributed network of key measurements to capture information on spatial variability. Coordinated activities from land-based stations, aircraft, additional ships, and satellites supported the expedition, providing the large-scale context. Jointly this constellation of observations and subsequent analyses will contribute to model improvements at many scales, as well as sea-ice forecasting, representations of local- and large-scale weather, and climate prediction. |
| Study of Precipitation, the Lower Atmosphere and Surface for Hydrometeorology (SPLASH) |
East River watershed of the Colorado mountains |
From fall 2021 through summer 2023, NOAA and research partners participated in the Study of Precipitation, the Lower Atmosphere and Surface for Hydrometeorology (SPLASH). This field study installed a comprehensive, state-of-the-art observing network in the East River watershed of the Colorado mountains with a goal of advancing weather and water prediction capabilities in areas with complex terrain. |
| 3rd Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP3) |
Coast of southern New England |
The 3rd Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP3) is a multi-seasonal offshore field measurement research campaign off the coast of southern New England. This campaign aims to boost off-shore wind generation through better forecasting for existing and future wind farms. |