JASMINE: The Joint Air-Sea Monsoon Interaction Experiment: A Pilot Study of Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction During Active and Break Phases of the Summer Monsoon

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The proposed experiment is a collaborative two-year study of the air-sea fluxes, air-sea interaction, convection and the upper ocean response to the variations of the summer monsoon as it oscillates between active and the lulls in between (break periods). A pilot study, the joint air-sea monsoon interaction experiment (JASMINE) will conduct an oceanographic and meteorological survey of the Bay of Bengal region. Air-sea fluxes, the state of the atmosphere and convection within the atmosphere will be determined in a region that has been observed to be a centroid of intraseasonal variability in the summer monsoon. JASMINE is a collaborative project of the University of Washington, University of Hawaii, and the University of Colorado.This component of the collaboration will examine the form of convection and its role in the intraseasonal and large scale variability. Scientific questions regarding the role of convective-large-scale interaction, active and break phases of the monsoon system responses to convection, predictability of convection over the Indian Ocean, and role of diurnal cycle in modulating convection activity in the Indian Ocean, will be addressed. The study is important since gathering and subsequent analysis of a comprehensive set of data, will yield insights into the air-sea interactions during break and active periods of the monsoon. The accurate prediction of monsoon onset and monsoon rainfall is a scientific challenge that also has enormous economic consequences.