NASA Mission Seeks to Uncover a Rainfall Mystery

(From Science Daily) Scientists from NASA and other organizations are on a mission to unlock the mysteries of why certain clouds produce copious amounts of rain. In a field mission that is now under way, aircraft are carrying instruments above and into rain clouds. Meanwhile scientists are also getting rainfall measurements on the ground.

This field campaign provides the most comprehensive observations of rainfall in the U.S. through the use of aircraft, spacecraft, remote sensing and ground sensors.

Convective clouds are the focus of a NASA mission that runs from April to June, 2011. Convective clouds form when warm, moist air rises and condenses at higher altitudes. Cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds or thunderclouds are types of convective clouds.

On April 22, scientists from NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched a weeks-long field campaign to learn more about the inner workings of cloud systems that generate significant amounts of rainfall. The field campaign, called the Mid-latitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), will run until June 6 from the DOE’s Southern Great Plains site near Ponca City in central Oklahoma. Because April through June is severe weather season in Oklahoma, there will be plenty of convective clouds to study.

Read more here: NASA Mission Seeks to Uncover a Rainfall Mystery