An Investigation of Orographic Enhancement during the OLYMPEX Field Campaign

The Olympic Mountains Experiment (OLYMPEX) was a ground validation field campaign that took place from November 2015 through February 2016 to verify and validate satellite measurements of precipitation from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. A primary goal of OLYMPEX was to validate rain/snow measurements from mid-latitude systems moving inland from the ocean to the coast and into the mountains to determine how satellite measurements of precipitation can be applied to hydrologic data. This work investigates the orographic enhancement of precipitation with onshore flow from the maritime environment to the Quinalt Valley. The evolution of vertical transects from the NPOL radar taken over the Pacific are compared with those taken over the valley to investigate deepening of radar echo over the mountains. Dropsonde data are also used to verify the amount of onshore flow seen in the radial velocities from the radar. Data available from parsivels and disdrometers will also be used to quantify the increase in precipitation due to orographic enhancement for the case studies selected.