Hydrological and Dynamical Processes over the TOGA-COARE andAdjacent Regions

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The overall goal of the research is to use observationally- based data to better understand and predict hydrological and dynamical processes over the western Pacific Ocean and their interactions with adjacent areas. The main objective will be to prepare an atlas containing monthly means of several kinematic, thermodynamic, and hydrological variables over the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans with an emphasis on the TOGA-COARE region. The atlas will use ECMWF analyses from the WCRP/TOGA archive II data set for 1985-1990, and should be completed shortly after the end of the intense observing period (IOP) of TOGA COARE. In subsequent years, a second atlas will be completed to include TOGA-COARE results for comparison. Other specific objectives are: to diagnose the horizontal and vertical structure of the intraseasonal oscillation as it traverses the Large-Scale Array (LSA) of TOGA- COARE; to investigate the relationship between enhanced tropical heating in the LSA and subtropical wind maxima over the western Pacific; and to examine a new method for improving estimates of heat and moisture transfer coefficients with the intent of improving estimates of sensible heat exchange and evaporation over tropical oceans. The research is important because it is one of the TOGA COARE studies to investigate the principal processes responsible for the coupling of the ocean and the atmosphere in an especially climate sensitive region of the world, the western Pacific Ocean, the field site of TOGA COARE.