Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS)

Hans Volkert, Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen
Evelyne Richard, Laboratoire d'Aérologie, CNRS & Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse

At present the German Research Community (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG) supports a coordinated priority programme entitled `Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting'. During the period 2004-2010 mainly university groups from Germany are tackling specific research tasks as they are applied for in three two-years phases. Details are given on the website http://www.meteo.uni-bonn.de/projekte/SPPMeteo.

A central part of the second round will be a field campaign under the acronym COPS taking place over medium height orography (in German: Mittelgebirge) as the Vosges, Black Forest and Swabian Alb mountains between eastern France and south-western Germany during the summer months June to August 2007.

COPS is co-ordinated by the Institut für Physik und Meteorologie of Universität Stuttgart-Hohenheim (Volker Wulfmeyer and Andreas Behrendt). Two international workshops took place in Sept. 2004 and June 2005, which also attracted significant interest of groups in Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, USA and UK; some of them also participated in MAP-SOP.

The link to MAP is at least two-fold: (i) processes under consideration within 'wet-MAP' at the Alpine south side are revisited north of the Alps under the triggering of medium height orography and during a different season, and (ii) the probabilistic approach which will be taken during MAP D-PHASE is also to be followed during COPS. Furthermore COPS is envisaged to be contained in the D-PHASE period.

As during MAP-SOP the application of novel (remote) sensing instrumentation should provide unifying dynamics between the various groups. Ground based instruments (among them several radars and lidars) are to be combined in up to three supersites, while airborne instruments will be tested in mesocale targeting missions.

Four working groups were set up to reflect the life cycle of thunderstorms and the chain from basic research questions to applications close to mesoscale numerical weather prediction:

1. Initiation of convection (IC), chair: Christoph Kottmeier, Universität Karlsruhe;
2. Aerosol and cloud microphysics (ACM), chair: Jost Heintzenberg, IfT Leipzig;
3. Precipitation processes and life cycle (PPL), chair: Martin Hagen, DLR-IPA Oberpfaffenhofen;
4. Data assimilation and predictability (DAP), chair: George Craig, DLR-IPA Oberpfaffenhofen.

In Germany, findings from COPS are to be integrated into the current development of the operational high resolution model LMK of Deutscher Wetterdienst.

In France, considerations are undertaken to participate in dedicated observations with systems such as GPS sensor for humidity measurements. Furthermore Météo France intends to apply its new high-resolution modelling and assimilation system AROME to interesting cases prior to and during the COPS special observing period.

In the USA, tailored applications are being undertaken to facilitate the integration of specialized observing systems (e.g. the S-Pol radar) to the supersites.

Details regarding COPS can be inferred from the website http://www.uni-hohenheim.de/spp-iop which is regularly updated. From the MAP perspective, it is reassuring that some of the synergies in mesoscale meteorology near mountains built up in Europe and beyond can be applied again and probably extended.