ALBATROSS: Aircraft and Lidar-Based Analysis of Thermal Regions Overlapping Sloped Surfaces

Over regions of complex terrain, vertical motions are often obfuscated by larger-scale circulation patterns. To probe the structures of convective updraft motions, or thermals, it is necessary to leverage observations across multiple platforms. To this end, we the ALBATROSS field project (Aircraft and Lidar-Based Analysis of Thermal Regions Overlapping Sloped Surfaces). This project investigates the structure and evolution of thermals within the Rockfish Valley located in the Blue Ridge Mountains using data collected from Doppler Wind LiDAR (DWL), instrument-equipped sailplanes, radiosonde launches, ground-based weather stations, and wind retrievals from unmanned aerial systems. Vertical velocity statistics are assembled from months of DWL data retrieval, and several days of flight campaigns will sample in-situ valley atmosphere profiles of temperature, humidity, and leverage accelerometer data to reveal the presence of convective updrafts. These thermals play a crucial role in the surface-to-free-troposphere transport of moisture, momentum, and particulate matter but research on their behavior within heterogeneous terrain remains limited. In this ePoster presentation, we will present some initial results from the ALBATROSS project.