Assessing Utah Basin Flows: PSEX, VTMX, PCAPS

A series of field campaigns in Utah related to cold-air pools in basins and valleys have been influenced greatly by Drs. Jerry Allwine and Chris Doran. A mini-field campaign in the Peter Sinks Basin, Utah, was held during September 1999 in which Jerry participated (Clements et al. 2003). Chris was the principal scientist for the Vertical Transport and Mixing Experiment (VTMX) sponsored by the Department of Energy that involved many DOE and academic scientists (Doran et al. 2002) while Jerry led the parallel Urban-2000 field campaign (Allwine et al. 2002). The instrumentation deployed as part of VTMX and Urban-2000 led to an unprecedented evaluation of stable boundary layers in the urban Salt Lake Valley. A complementary field project sponsored by the National Science Foundation is now underway during the 2010-2011 winter in the Salt Lake Valley. The Persistent Cold-Air Pool Study (PCAPS) builds upon the earlier work undertaken by Jerry and Chris. A review of these field campaigns and some of the results from them will be presented.