Abstract:

The occurrence of convection over isolated terrain has been well documented, but some details remain uncertain. The convection tends to develop slowly and in stages despite the presence of sufficient CAPE to support deep convection. It has been proposed that a mutual interaction between the cumulus cells and the environment results in a conditioning of the atmosphere to support deep convection.

Recently a field experiment was performed to examine aspects of the transition from shallow to deep convection associated with the North American Monsoon. This experiment was called the Cumulus In-situ, Photogrammetric and Doppler Observations (CuPIDO) and was performed near Tucson, AZ. CuPIDO employed and instrumented aircraft, an array of surface stations, mobile radiosondes and stereo pairs of cameras to document the onset of shallow convection and transition to deep convection.  

This talk will describe the techniques used to determine the 3-dimensional cloud structure from the stereo imagery and some preliminary analysis of data from CuPIDO.