The persistent cold-air pool study

The Persistent Cold-Air Pool Study (PCAPS) addressed the need for modern observations capable of resolving the hierarchy of scales affecting persistent cold-air pools (CAP). PCAPS was part of a broader 3-yr investigation supported by the National Science Foundation. The goals of the study were to understand the processes governing the life cycle of persistent CAPs, to determine the consequence of these processes on air pollution, and to improve the fidelity of forecasts of persistent CAPs. PCAPS was conducted in the Salt Lake valley (SLV) of northern Utah, US where CAPs were common during winter and were accompanied with unhealthy air quality and occasional episodes of dense fog. Graduate students from University of Utah played a prominent role in the experimental design and implementation of the PCAPS field campaign. They devised a two-tiered observational strategy for documenting the life cycle of persistent CAPs, working jointly with the project's principal investigators.