Observations of Wind Flow Related to Thunderstorm Genesis Along the Red Sea Escarpment of Saudi Arabia

Humid winds blowing inland from the Red Sea to the Saudi Arabian escarpment during the summer monsoon have been recognized as the genesis mechanism for intense, deep, moist convection over the escarpment (Abdullah and Al-Mazroui 1998, Kucera and Burger 2018). The National Center Meteorology (NCM) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, will soon install a series of ground-based cloud seeding equipment along the escarpment to leverage the rapid ascent in this region. A radar-based study has identified the most common locations of storm genesis during the 2022 monsoon (WMI 2023). The first of three intensive operations periods (IOPs) of the Saudi Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation Enhancement Campaign (SARPEC) was conducted in the late summer of 2023, coincident with the seasonal monsoon of the Asir mountains/escarpment of south-west Saudi Arabia. To complement the radar study, grid patterns (Figure 1) were flown at three locations along the escarpment. The u, v, and w components of the wind are mapped for each “wind box”, to obtain samples of flow over several locations suggested by the radar study as being favorable for the placement of ground-based seeding facilities. Wind grids were flown twice for each of the three areas. Wind observations are compared to the locations of sites for ground-based seeding selected solely based on the radar study. The implications for the modification of locations based on the radar study are discussed.

Figure 1. The flight path of North Dakota Research Platform N555DS on 08 August 2023 during SARPEC is shown. Blue dots indicate potential locations of ground-based seeding sites based on a radar study of storm genesis during the 2022 monsoon. Circles around each site are 1 km radius.