The goal of COPE is to improve forecasts of flash flooding -- the floods that occur when very heavy, or persistent, rain falls from cumulonimbus clouds.

A project is being held over Cornwall and Devon during July and August 2013 to study the clouds. Two research aircraft, a ground-based radar and several other ground-based instruments will make measurements of exactly how the rain forms and develops. The aircraft are equipped with some of the most sophisticated research instruments in the world – instruments that can distinguish between liquid and solid particles at 200 mph, for example. A major objective is to find these needles in the haystack – the first few ice crystals that form in amongst the hundreds of cloud droplets per every cubic centimetre of cloud.

COPE is led by the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the UK Met Office, and involves scientists at the Universities of Leeds, Manchester and Reading, as well as international partners from the Universities of Purdue and Wyoming.

The MICROphysicS of COnvective PrEcipitation (MICROSCOPE) is the NERC funded part of the wider COPE (COnvective PrEcipitation) project. The MICROSCOPE UK Principal Investigator is Alan Blyth (University of Leeds) together with Tom Choularton (University of Manchester) and Anthony Illingworth (University of Reading). MICROSCOPE data are being archived at the NCAS-British Atmospheric Data Centre.

There are 3 NERC Grants associated to MICROSCOPE:

• NE/J023507/1 led by Professor Alan Blyth, University of Leeds.
• NE/J022594/1 led by Professor Tom W. Choularton, University of Manchester.
• NE/J023124/1 led by Professor Anthony J Illingworth, University of Reading.