RICO - Rain In Cumulus over the Ocean

People: Alan Blyth, Alan Gadian, Justin Lingard, Jason Lowenstein, Jim McQuaid, Justin Peter, Mike Smith

Start Date: 1 October 2004
End Date: 30 September 2007

Funded by: NERC

Abstract

The RICO experiment was designed, in the broadest sense, to examine the onset of precipitation in shallow, maritime trade wind cumulus clouds. Trade wind cumulus clouds are one of the most prevalent types of clouds on the planet and play an important role in the global circulation, energy balance and climate. Despite over 50 years of research, the fundamental processes controlling the onset of precipitation in warm clouds are not fully understood. As a result, parameterisations of precipitation in climate models are either poor or neglected. Also due to the large range of scales from the microphysical, to the cloud-interaction scale to the ensemble cloud field, past field campaigns have tended to focus on one of these scales. RICO was designed to address the production of rain in warm cumulus clouds on all scales as they are inextricably linked.

RICO was an international experiment utilising aircraft from the UK (FAAM BAE 146) and the USA (NCAR C130, Univ. of Wyoming King Air ) and conducted in the vicinity of Antigua and Barbuda .