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www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/627/2011/
doi:10.5194/acp-11-627-2011
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The VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx): goals, platforms, and field operations
1Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
2UCLA, Los Angeles, USA
3Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA
4University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, USA
5Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, USA
6School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, UK
7Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, USA
8NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, USA
9Departamento de Geofisica, Universidad de Chile, Chile
10Instituto del Mar del Perú, Perú
11NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, USA
12Dept. of Applied Environmental Science (ITM), Stockholm University, Sweden
13Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, USA
14Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA
15North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA
16Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK
17L'Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Marseille, France
18NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, USA
19The Met Office, Exeter, UK
20National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, USA
21University of Alaska, Fairbanks, USA
22Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
23Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, USA
*currently at: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, USA
Abstract. The VAMOS1 Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) was an international field program designed to make observations of poorly understood but critical components of the coupled climate system of the southeast Pacific. This region is characterized by strong coastal upwelling, the coolest SSTs in the tropical belt, and is home to the largest subtropical stratocumulus deck on Earth. The field intensive phase of VOCALS-REx took place during October and November 2008 and constitutes a critical part of a broader CLIVAR program (VOCALS) designed to develop and promote scientific activities leading to improved understanding, model simulations, and predictions of the southeastern Pacific (SEP) coupled ocean-atmosphere-land system, on diurnal to interannual timescales. The other major components of VOCALS are a modeling program with a model hierarchy ranging from the local to global scales, and a suite of extended observations from regular research cruises, instrumented moorings, and satellites. The two central themes of VOCALS-REx focus upon (a) links between aerosols, clouds and precipitation and their impacts on marine stratocumulus radiative properties, and (b) physical and chemical couplings between the upper ocean and the lower atmosphere, including the role that mesoscale ocean eddies play. A set of hypotheses designed to be tested with the combined field, monitoring and modeling work in VOCALS is presented here. A further goal of VOCALS-REx is to provide datasets for the evaluation and improvement of large-scale numerical models. VOCALS-REx involved five research aircraft, two ships and two surface sites in northern Chile. We describe the instrument payloads and key mission strategies for these platforms and give a summary of the missions conducted.
1 Variability of the American Monsoon Systems, an international CLIVAR program.
Final Revised Paper (PDF, 6691 KB) Discussion Paper (ACPD) Special Issue
Citation: Wood, R., Mechoso, C. R., Bretherton, C. S., Weller, R. A., Huebert, B., Straneo, F., Albrecht, B. A., Coe, H., Allen, G., Vaughan, G., Daum, P., Fairall, C., Chand, D., Gallardo Klenner, L., Garreaud, R., Grados, C., Covert, D. S., Bates, T. S., Krejci, R., Russell, L. M., de Szoeke, S., Brewer, A., Yuter, S. E., Springston, S. R., Chaigneau, A., Toniazzo, T., Minnis, P., Palikonda, R., Abel, S. J., Brown, W. O. J., Williams, S., Fochesatto, J., Brioude, J., and Bower, K. N.: The VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx): goals, platforms, and field operations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 627-654, doi:10.5194/acp-11-627-2011, 2011. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
