Shallow, maritime cumuli are ubiquitous over much of the tropical oceans, and characterizing their properties is important to understanding weather and climate. The Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean (RICO) field campaign, which took place during November 2004–January 2005 in the trades over the western Atlantic, emphasized measurements of processes related to the formation of rain in shallow cumuli, and how rain subsequently modifies the structure and ensemble statistics of trade wind clouds. Eight weeks of nearly continuous S-band polarimetric radar sampling, 57 flights from three heavily instrumented research aircraft, and a suite of ground- and ship-based instrumentation provided data on trade wind clouds with unprecedented resolution. Observational strategies employed during RICO capitalized on the advances in remote sensing and other instrumentation to provide insight into processes that span a range of scales and that lie at the heart of questions relating to the cause and effects of rain from shallow maritime cumuli.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois
University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
University of Miami, Miami, Florida
University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
NOAA/ETL, Boulder, Colorado
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico
University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
SPEC, Inc., Boulder, Colorado
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
CNRM/GAME, Météeo-France/CNRS, Toulouse, France
Met Office, Exeter, United Kingdom
University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
Gerber Scientific, Inc., Reston, Virginia
University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island
Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, and Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands
U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, Netherlands
Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon A supplement to this article is available online (DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-88-12-Rauber)
