HOPE—A German intensive field campaign to capture the spatiotemporal variability of the thermodynamics, energetics, and microphysics of the cloudy troposphere with high resolution

The "High Definition Clouds and Precipitation for advancing Climate Prediction" HD(CP)2 project aims at a breakthrough in simulating clouds and precipitation by identifying how different representations of processes on their relevant spatio-temporal scales contribute to the overall skill of model simulations, see http://hdcp2.zmaw.de. The “HD(CP)2 Observational Prototype Experiment” HOPE was designed to provide a critical model evaluation at the scale of the model simulations and further to provide information on sub grid variability and microphysical properties that are subject to parameterizations even at high-resolution simulations. During HOPE, an unprecedented set of active and passive remote sensing instruments - many of which with scanning capability - together with numerous in-situ measurements have been employed to characterize surface energy fluxes and boundary layer dynamics and turbulent flux fields, aerosols, clouds, cloud and ice formation in as much detail as possible. HOPE provides a unique overview on algorithms and data sets set for process understanding and model evaluation at cloud resolving and higher scales with a scientific focus on the onset of clouds and precipitation. HOPE took place within an area of about 10 km x 7 km in Jülich, Germany in April and May 2013 and during a follow-up campaign in an area of 2 km x 2 km in Melpitz, Germany in September and October 2013. The presentation will discuss a few case studies for clear sky, convective clouds, and precipitation situations to demonstrate the capabilities of HOPE. First comparisons to corresponding high resolution Large Eddy Simulations will be shown as well.