The RELAMPAGO field campaign in Argentina: towards inclusive and immersive scientific engagement

The Remote Sensing of Electrification, Lightning, and Mesoscale/Microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO) field campaign was conducted in Austral spring and summer 2018-2019 with the goal of understanding the behavior and impacts of extreme convective storms in the lee of the Andes mountain range in central Argentina. This campaign was a major effort that represented the largest atmospheric sciences field campaign conducted on land outside of the United States. Given the presence of a large contingent of international scientists involved in the campaign, as well as extensive involvement of Argentine scientists, RELAMPAGO was designed from the ground up to enable long-term interactions among scientists in the area of hazardous weather. Working groups from different disciplines that interacted for the first time in RELAMPAGO project, continued working together after the end of the project not only in the development of new national and international scientific projects, but also in the generation of tools such as for water management. Through these efforts, the PIs paid special attention to ensuring the development of meaningful and long-lasting partnerships that were envisioned to continue well past the campaign.

Engagement by US, Argentine, and Brazilian principal investigators prior to the campaign through universities, national and state level governmental agencies, the National Weather Service in Argentina, and local communities helped solidify trust and facilitated collaboration during and after the campaign. During the campaign, scientists worked side-by-side in planning operations, forecast support, the operations center, and field instrumentation roles. Following the campaign, an international data workshop in Buenos Aires aimed at solidifying collaborative publication plans and inclusive manuscript co-authorship and long-term collaborations. Challenges included the COVID pandemic, funding barriers for collaborative research, customs and importation issues, unequal access to funding, and publicity and press coverage during the campaign which portrayed a colonial view of the project.