The RICO student mission—flights, ground operations and subsequent research

The Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean (RICO) field campaign took place during the winter of 2004/05 off the Caribbean Islands of Antigua and Barbuda. The objective of RICO in the broadest sense is to characterize and understand the properties of trade wind cumulus at all scales, with particular emphasis on determining the importance of precipitation. To accomplish this objective, a wide variety of instrumentation was employed. Aircraft included the NCAR C-130, the Wyoming King Air, and the British BAE-146. Several instrument platforms were located on the island of Barbuda, including NCAR's SPOLKa dual polarization radar, a rawinsonde launch site and a surface meteorological station. Other observation systems included several satellite platforms, short wavelength radars and a lidar on board the Seward Johnson research ship, as well as a ground sampling station on the island of Antigua.

RICO had an unprecedented educational component. On 18 January 2005, control of all major operations of the RICO field campaign was relinquished to the graduate students. On this day, the students successfully executed flight plans they had developed to address three scientific objectives: 1) to study cloud processing of aerosols; 2) to investigate the nature of the island tails; and 3) to conduct an inter-comparison of the ground sampling station aerosol measurements with those made on the C-130. An overview of the objectives and environmental conditions accompanying the student flight will be given and initial findings from the student mission will be presented.