The goal of the Deep Convective Microphysics Experiment (DCMEX) project is to ultimately reduce the uncertainty in equilibrium climate sensitivity by improving the representation of microphysical processes in global climate models (GCMs). It is the anvils produced by tropical systems in particular, that contribute significantly to cloud feedbacks. The anvil radiative properties, lifetimes and areal extent are the key parameters. DCMEX will determine the extent to which these are influenced, or even controlled by the cloud microphysics including the habits, concentrations and sizes of the ice particles that make up the anvils, which in turn depend on the microphysical processes in the mixed-phase region of the cloud as well as those occurring in the anvil itself.

A measurement campaign took place in July-August 2022 over the Magdalena mountains, New Mexico. The FAAM BAe-146 aircraft, dual-polarisation doppler radar, aerosol instruments and stereo-camera observations collected data which was then combined with modelling activities to improve the representation of deep convective microphysics within climate models.