Role of Mesoscale Remote Sensing Observation of High-Impact Storms: The case of the 29 June 2012 derecho

Severe thunderstorms have been known to have catastrophic impacts on society. Although progressive improvements are shown, such storms are difficult to forecast in advance primarily due to the high variability of water vapor and the inadequacy of operational instrumentation to observe and represent it in operational weather forecasting models. Recent advances in ground based remote sensing of water vapor and temperature are just now being tested and investigated as to what role they can play. The National Research Council has recommended that the troposphere should be observed using a network of thermodynamic profilers across the nation and agencies are investigating such feasibility. However, these remote sensing instruments are relatively new and their performance needs a careful study. Further, the use of the remote sensors in now casting – in capturing the atmospheric stability index has not been well documents. I will discuss prerequisite statistical analyses necessary to understand the successes and limitations of these emerging remote instrumentations. As a case study investigation, the 29-30 June 2012 derecho over the Washington-Baltimore Metropolitan region is selected. This is a perfect example of storm that impacted millions of lives stretching from the Midwest to Mid-Atlantic United States. At Howard University—Beltsville Campus, and at Germantown, MD microwave radiometer instruments were taking atmospheric profiles on a 2-minute interval up to the onset (HUBC) and through the historic storm (Germantown). Preliminary results suggest that the microwave radiometer is capable of obtaining accurate retrievals of both water vapor and temperature – relevant in understanding the thermodynamics existing in an explosively convective environment.