ABSTRACT

Space shuttle landings at the shuttle landing facility at Kennedy Space Center are subject to strict weather-related launch commit criteria and flight rules. Complex launch commit criteria and end-of-mission flight rules demand very accurate nowcasts (forecasts of less than 2 h) of cloud, wind, visibility, precipitation, turbulence, and thunderstorms prior to shuttle launches and landings.

During easterly flow regimes the onset of convective activity has proven to be particularly difficult to predict. Contrasting weather ranging from clear skies to thunderstorms occurs on days with seemingly similar synoptic environments. Four days of easterly flow during the Convection and Precipitation/Electrification (CaPE) Experiment were investigated in an effort to identify and simulate key features that distinguish convectively active and suppressed conditions. Data from CaPE and operational data, including satellite imagery and National Centers for Environmental Prediction model analysis output over the Florida peninsula and surrounding data-sparse Atlantic Ocean, are combined in the research. It is found that elevated moisture in the midtroposphere above the marine boundary layer helps distinguish convectively active and passive days. Moreover, analysis reveals that the moisture distribution is related to jet dynamics in the upper troposphere.

A series of simulations using the Mesoscale Atmospheric Simulation System (MASS) model was undertaken. The MASS model run with a coarse grid (45 km) correctly simulates the development of the upper-level jet streak and its general impact on convective activity over the Florida peninsula. The MASS model run with a nested (11 km) grid and moisture enhancement of the initial model state from radar, satellite, and surface data results in the best short-term (6 h) forecast of relative humidity and precipitation patterns over the Florida peninsula and proximate coastal environment. Implications of the research results for nowcasting convective activity over Cape Canaveral are discussed.