CFACT

Observations, Modeling, and Prediction of Cold Fog

The Cold Fog Amongst Complex Terrain (CFACT) field campaign and science project sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) investigated cold fog formation in mountain valleys. The overarching goals of the CFACT project were to

1. investigate cold fog development and environment conditions in complex terrain with the latest observation technology,
2. improve microphysical parameterizations and visibility algorithms used in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, and
3. develop data-assimilation and analysis methods for current and next-generation (e.g., sub-kilometer scale) NWP models. 

The CFACT field campaign was conducted in Heber Valley, Utah, during January and February 2022, with support from the NSF Lower Atmosphere Observing Facilities (LAOF) managed by EOL. The deployment of a network of ground-based in-situ instruments and remote sensing platforms helped to obtain comprehensive measurements of thermodynamic profiling, cloud microphysics, physical and chemical properties of aerosols, and dynamics of the environment. Comprehensive data analysis, data assimilation, modeling, verification and validation, and predictability studies were conducted following the field campaign.