The French ST-radar network during MAP:: Observational and scientific aspects

The Mesoscale Alpine Program (MAP) international cooperative campaign took place over and around the Alps between 99/09/07 and 99/11/15 and was devoted to the study of the interactions between large-scale processes and the meso-scale flow over a complex mountainous terrain. Numerous airborne and ground based instrumental systems and meso-scale numerical models were involved in the campaign, as well as radiosoundings and satellite observations. During MAP the French ST (Strato-Tropospheric) radar research-network consisted of five VHF (Very High Frequency) and three UBF (Ultra High Frequency) profilers. Four VHF's and two UHF's were installed in southern France and one VHF and one UHF were in Italy, in the Lago Maggiore target area. The VHF's provided 15-min time-resolution vertical profiles of wind and vertical SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) from the low troposphere up to high tropospheric or low stratospheric levels, depending on the instrument and/or the atmospheric conditions. The same kind of data were obtained by the UHF's, but from a few hundreds of meters up to about 3 km. In their respective attitude ranges, all these instruments allowed the time evolution and the vertical structure of meso-scale dynamic processes to be documented. VHF observations made during upper-level PV-anomaly passages (PV streamers) above southern France and Lago Maggiore area, including jet-stream passages and tropopause variations, are presented here. UHF observations of the low-tropospheric wind at the exit of the Rhone-valley, locally called Mistral, are also presented. Preliminary analyses show that our observations are consistent both between themselves and with synoptic-scale ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts)-model analyses. In addition, cross-comparisons with meso-scale model simulations are made allowing some meso-scale aspects of the atmospheric dynamics to be investigated.