Press Kit

RELAMPAGO-CACTI is an international field campaign to study thunderstorms that form in the lee of the Andes Mountains and Sierras de Cordoba in Argentina and Southern Brazil. It will observe the physical mechanisms that cause the initiation and growth of organized convective systems in storms that are the "most intense on earth" according to satellite observations.

RELAMPAGO will focus on observing specific aspects of the storms that will be from a wide variety of fixed and mobile instrumentation platforms. Processes focused upon with observations include hail production, electrification and lightning, heavy rain and flooding, and severe weather production (hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes). RELAMPAGO is sponsored by the US National Science Foundation, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Argentina Secretary of Science, Technology, and Innovation, the Province of Cordoba Ministry of Science and Ministry of Water, Environment, and Public Service, and Brazil National Institute for Space Research and São Paulo Research Foundation.

CACTI is a US Department of Energy-funded study designed to improve understanding of cloud growth, organization, and decay in relation to environmental conditions so that representation of these clouds and their environmental effects can be improved in earth system models. The scientific objectives of CACTI are focused on interactions between cumulus clouds and their surrounding environment and on storm formation, growth, and organization. Surface and airborne platforms (including the heavily instrumented Gulfstream G-1 aircraft).