EARTHCARE+ INNOVATION – VAMOS

VAMOS focuses on the scientific exploitation of one of most exciting new measurement capabilities of the EarthCARE satellite mission, the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) Doppler velocity measurements. The availability of Doppler measurements from space will offer a unique opportunity for the collection of a global dataset of vertical motions in clouds and precipitation. In addition, the CPR Doppler velocity measurements can provide the first detailed climatology of hydrometeors sedimentation velocities and help to constraint the particles’ characteristic size in both ice, liquid and mixed-phase cloud conditions. While the Doppler capability of EarthCARE’s CPR represents a major innovation, considerable scientific development is still required to fully harness its potential for advancing our understanding of cloud dynamics and hydrometeor terminal fall speeds.

Objectives

The VAMOS consortium will focus on the following set of objectives: 

1. Generate new advanced EarthCARE CPR Doppler products that target the needs of the scientific community in convection and precipitation
2. Conduct detail scientific investigations of the global CPR Doppler dataset using the aforementioned advanced products
3. Develop a fast CPR forward simulator suitable km-scale models and demonstrate its applicability to a number of high resolution regional simulations and
4. Promote and foster collaborations and awareness regarding the use of the CPR Doppler velocity measurements.