The Cooperative Convective Precipitation Experiment, CCOPE, was an outgrowth of the perceived need for more comprehensive data sets on convective clouds. It was planned and executed by a large group of participants, with the leadership of the Convective Storms Division of NCAR and the Office of Atmospheric Resources Research of the Bureau of Reclamation. The field program ran from 18 May through 7 August 1981, involving networks of eight radars—seven Doppler, two dual-wavelength—123 mesonet stations, seven upper-air sounding sites, and 14 research aircraft (of which as many as eight were flown in coordinated missions on single storms). The field program was an operational success, with a lot of convective activity within the densely instrumented area, permitting many relatively complete data sets to be obtained. The data are now becoming available, and the analysis effort is commencing.
1Article prepared by staff of the Convective Storms Division of NCAR, with the paragraphs on CCOPE weather furnished by C. Hartzell of Western Weather Consultants. Some parts were taken from the CCOPE Preliminary Experimental Design and Operations Plan, referenced later. Reprint requests should be sent to the Convective Storms Division.
2The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
