The Sierra Rotors Project, Observations of Mountain Waves

The Sierra Rotors project, led by investigators at the Desert Research Institute (DRI), examined mountain waves and wave induced rotors in the lee of the Sierra Nevadas in eastern California during the spring of 2004.

A range of instrumentation was deployed in Owens Valley, including a dense array of surface stations from DRI, two ISS (Integrated Sounding Systems) from NCAR, an additional radiosonde station near Fresno, and various instruments and modeling efforts from other groups. The two NCAR ISS consisted of a wind profiler, surface met. station and radiosondes. One ISS used MAPR, an advanced wind profiler capable of making fast wind measurements, ideal for capturing rapidly evolving wave events. The other ISS was a mobile ISS (MISS) which was deployed at various locations around the valley to examine the spatial variability in wave events. Several wave events were observed, some with strong activity and possible rotors. The presentation will focus on the ISS observations of these events, along with preliminary analysis.