SCM

Goals: The focus of the Single Column Model (SCM) IOP is to develop and test physical parameterizations relating to the understanding of clouds and radiative transfer extracted from General Circulation Models (GCMs) or other large scale models. Specific issues include:

• Providing detailed temporal characterization of winds, temperature, and moisture within the atmospheric column over the SGP CART Site
• Providing, as boundary conditions, the advective tendencies and vertical velocities that are the dynamic forcing normally calculated with a GCM

Activity Summary

The mission goal for the SCM IOP is 21 consecutive days of successful Rawinsonde launches from three Boundary Sites. There may be periods during the 21 day operation where a single, or multiple sites experience brief to extended conditions when launches are not possible. Through coordination between the Site Program Manager, Site Scientist, and Site Operations Manager, the following shut down and restart criteria have been established:

A. A single site failure which will result in the loss of 4 or more consecutive sonde launches is the threshold for stopping the IOP at the BF sites. Conditions which may produce this condition include severe weather (winter storm), electric power loss, and Rawinsonde equipment failure.

Should this condition become imminent, an emergency coordination meeting will be called between the Site Program Manager and the Site Operations Manager to discuss the situation and make the decision to shut down the exercise. After the decision is made, Site Operations will notify all sites of the shut down. All IOP activity and Temporary Site Operator Personnel will be placed in a stop work status. Continuous coordination between the Site Program Manager and the Site Operations Manager will result in the decision to re-start or terminate the SCM IOP.

B. Should the Central Facility experience or be forecasted to experience any shut down exceeding 12 consecutive hours, the SCM IOP will also be shut down. Emergency coordination between the Site Program Manager and the Site Operations Manager will assess and determine the potential for re-start or if the outage is severe, the decision to terminate the IOP. Upon making the decision for IOP shut down, Site Operations will notify all site personnel. All SCM IOP activity and Temporary Site Operator personnel will be placed in a stop work status until the decision is made to re-start or terminate the IOP.

C. If the shut down is an emergency condition situation, every effort will be made to gracefully shut down the affected facility. However, the safety of personnel takes precedence and if the shut down requires immediate evacuation, the graceful shut down may not be possible. The responsible site operators will return to the site after the danger condition passes, and effect a graceful shut down of the site.

D. Should the SCM IOP be temporarily stopped, and the decision is made to restart the exercise, Site Operations at all BF sites will commence with the start of the next scheduled work shift (i.e., if the shut down is for 24 hours, and starts in the middle of the evening shift, the restart would occur with the start of the mid shift the following day.

Timeline

Campaign Data Sets