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TOGA-COARE Research
Last Updated: 8 May 2001 Objective Analyses Publications References The collective goals of the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) were designated to provide an understanding of the role of the warm-pool regions of the tropics in the mean and transient state of the tropical ocean-atmosphere system. One of its major objectives was to understand the principal atmospheric processes that organize convection in the warm-pool region [Webster and Lukas, 1992]. The TOGA-COARE Intensive Observing Period (IOP) was from 1 November 1992 to 28 February 1993.
This figure (by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research ,UCAR ) shows the special observation stations deployed in the western Pacific warm pool during the COARE IOP. The IFA denotes the Intensive Flux Array; OSA the Outer Soundings Array; LSA the Large-scale Soundings Array.
UCLA TOGA-COARE Objective Analyses
Since 1996, we have produced two versions of objective analysis for COARE, both using the successive correction method [e.g., Daley, 1991, Chapter 3], only with different background fields. The earlier one achieved in 1996 was done by Dr. Baode Chen (click here for detail).
The most recent version is published in Tung et al. [1999]. In this analysis, we used the data from 43 COARE sounding platforms operated during the IOP, which include 35 land-based priority sounding stations (PSS) and 8 research vessels. This dataset is extracted from the TOGA-COARE upper-air sounding data archive maintained by the Joint Office for Science Support (JOSS) at UCAR [Loehrer et al., 1996]. Taking a subset of European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA) [Gibson et al., 1997] in the IOP as the background field, the wind, temperature, and relative humidity from the soundings are objectively interpolated onto a 2.5x2.5 horizontal grid by means of the successive correction method . The final data output covers the domain of 90 E-170 W, 30 S-30 N, with a 12-hourly resolution in time and a 50-hPa vertical resolution.
Despite of the many efforts, our plan to have a real final version of objective analysis is delayed, due to the systematic errors in moisture soundings in IFA [Zipser and Johnson, 1998]. We are now paying attention to the updates of the moisture correction, and will take action anytime when corrected soundings are available.
Publications
We have utilized the TOGA-COARE data for the studies of Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) [Madden and Julian, 1971, 1972] and the interaction between convection and tropical motions. Following is the list of our TOGA-COARE-related publications.
W.-w. Tung and M. Yanai, 2001: Convective Momentum Transport Observed during the TOGA COARE IOP. Part I: General Features. (J. Atmos. Sci. Accepted)
W.-w. Tung and M. Yanai, 2001: Convective Momentum Transport Observed during the TOGA COARE IOP. Part II: Case Studies. (J. Atmos. Sci. Submitted)
Yanai, M., B. Chen, and W.-w. Tung, 2000: The Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) observed during the TOGA-COARE IOP: Global view. J. Atmos. Sci., 57, 2374-2396.
Chen, B., and M. Yanai, 2000: Comparison of the Maddem-Julian oscillation (MJO) during the TOGA COARE IOP with a 15-year climatology. J. Geophys. Res., 105, 2139-2149.
Tung, W.-w., C. Lin, B. Chen, M. Yanai, and A. Arakawa, 1999: Basic modes of cumulus heating and drying observed during TOGA-COARE IOP. Geophys. Res. Letters, 26, 3117-3120.
References
Daley, R., Atmospheric Data Analysis, 457pp., Cambridge, New York, NY, 1991.
Gibson, J. K., P. Kallberg, S. Uppala, A. Hernandez, A. Nomura, and E. Serrano, ECMWF Re-Analysis Project Report Series. 1. ERA Description, 72 pp., European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, 1997.
Loehrer, S. M., T. A. Edmands, and J. A. Moore, TOGA COARE upper-air sounding data archive: development and quality control procedures, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 77, 2651-2671, 1996.
Madden, R., and P. Julian, 1971, Detection of a 40-50 day oscillation in the zonal wind in the tropical Pacific, J. Atmos. Sci., 28, 702-708.
Madden, R. A., and P. R. Julian, 1972, Description of global scale circulation cell in the tropics with a 40-50 day period, J. Atmos. Sci., 29, 1109-1123.
Tung, W.-w., C. Lin, B. Chen, M. Yanai, and A. Arakawa, 1999: Basic modes of cumulus heating and drying observed during the TOGA-COARE IOP. (Accepted by Geophys. Res. Lett.).
Webster, P. J., and R. Lukas, TOGA COARE: The Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 73, 1377-1416, 1992.
Zipser, E. J., and R. H. Johnson, Systematic errors in radiosonde humidities: A global problem? Preprints, 10th Symposium on Meteorological Observations and Instrumentation, American Meteorological Society, 72-73, 1998.
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This website is maintained by Wen-wen Tung qc@atmos.ucla.edu.
