Observations and modeling of Saharan dust interaction with Hurricane Nadine (2012) during HS3

The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) was a multiyear field campaign (2012-14) with the goal of improving understanding of hurricane formation and intensity change. One of HS3's primary science goals was to obtain measurements to help determine the extent to which the Saharan air layer impacts storm intensification. In 2012, HS3 used one of NASA's unmanned Global Hawk aircraft equipped with three instruments to measure characteristics of the storm environment (dropsonde derived profiles of temperature, humidity, wind speed and wind direction; interferometer derived profiles of temperature and humidity in the clear air; and lidar derived profiles of Saharan dust and clouds). This poster will focus on environmental observations obtained during the early stages of Hurricane Nadine (2012) when it interacted with the Saharan air layer. In addition, the Goddard Space Flight Center version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model with interactive aerosol-cloud-radiation physics is used to identify the role of Saharan dust using simulations of Nadine with and without the aerosol interactions.