Collaborative Research: Structure and Evolution of the East Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone under the Influence of Easterly Waves & the Madden-Julian Oscillation in EPIC

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EPIC (Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate processes in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system) is an activity of the US CLIVAR Program. EPIC 2001 consists of four components focussing on (i) intertropical convergence zone/warm pool phenomena; (ii) cross-equatorial inflow into the intertropical convergence zone; (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 ATM, this collaborative research has awards made by NSF/OCE and NOAA/OGP.Under this award (collaborative with Molinari/SUNY Albany, ATM 0002387), the PI will examine factors responsible for the fluctuations in the strength and position of the East Pacific ITCZ on weekly time scales. The variations of the ITCZ convection as a function of the diurnal cycle will also be examined. The work is important because it will improve understanding and modeling of climate variability over the Eastern Tropical Pacific.