Convective Forcing Mechanisms over the East Pacific Warm Pool in EPIC2001

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EPIC (Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate processes in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system) is an activity of the US Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Program. EPIC 2001 consists of four components focussing on (i) intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) warm pool phenomena; (ii) cross-equatorial inflow into the ITCZ; (iii) upper ocean structure and mixing; and (iv) an exploratory study of boundary layer cloud properties in the southeasterly tradewind regime. The field phase of EPIC 2001 is scheduled for a 6-week period during the interval Sept 1 to Oct 15, 2001. In addition to the eight awards made by the Division of Atmospheric Sciences, this collaborative research has awards made by NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences and NOAA's Office of Global Programs.Under this award, the PI will gather various data sets in the field phase, and use these to examine the set of mechanisms that force convection in the east Pacific ITCZ. The work will be key to the development and verification of parameterizations for diabatic processes in the atmospheric components of coupled ocean-atmosphere global circulation models. The work is important because it will improve understanding and modeling of climate variability over the eastern tropical Pacific.