Radar morphology of tornadic supercells and other convective systems sampled over Texas and Oklahoma during the 2012 Deep Convective Cloud Chemistry (DC3) experiment

During 15 May – 30 June 2012 numerous convective systems were sampled over the three sets of lightning mapping arrays (LMAs) stretching southwestward from eastern Oklahoma to west of Lubbock, Texas as part of the recently completed field phase of the Deep Convective Cloud Chemistry (DC3) experiment. One of the key objectives of DC3 is to relate cloud electrification to nitrous-oxide production in the upper troposphere. To understand the variability in cloud electrification associated with storm dynamics and environmental thermodynamic characteristics that affect microphysical processes that are associated with cloud electrification, mobile Doppler and dual-polarimetric radars were deployed along with in-storm electric field meters and particle imager soundings and separate environmental soundings. More than twelve convective systems were sampled over the Texas-Oklahoma domain, including two tornadic supercell thunderstorms, two non-tornadic supercells, one of which was a low-precipitation storm, and several multicell convective systems. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the radar structure of the storm systems sampled, with particular emphasis on three supercell events: (i) a transition from a two-dimensional convective line to a line of supercells, (ii) a tornadic high precipitation supercell observed in a triple Doppler network with both C and X-band dual-polarimetric radars and (iii) a classic supercell undergoing tornadogenesis within the mobile observing network.