VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study (VOCALS) Regional Experiment Scientific Program Overview

这是一个支持VOCALS-REx继续规划的奖项。NSF并没有承诺资助这个实地项目。这一供资决定将通过进一步审查来确定。美洲季风系统变率（VAMOS）海洋-云-大气-陆地研究-区域实验（VOCALS-REx）是一项国际野外实验，旨在更好地了解东南太平洋（SEP）地区气候系统的核心物理和化学过程。SEP地区的气候是一个紧密耦合的系统，涉及海洋、大气和陆地之间的相互作用，但人们对这种相互作用知之甚少。VOCALS-REx将专注于云层、气溶胶、海洋边界层（MBL）过程、上层海洋动力学和热力学、沿海洋流和上升流、大规模下沉以及安第斯山脉以西的区域日环流之间的相互作用。野外试验的最终驱动因素是需要改进模式对SEP和更广泛的热带和亚热带地区的耦合气候系统的模拟。通过VOCALS对观测和模拟工作的协调将使气候和区域预报机构更好地了解和预测。在VOCALS-REx期间，将从飞机、研究船和地面站点等多个平台获得多学科密集观测数据集。这些数据集将被用来测试一组协调的假设，这些假设被组织成两大主题：(1)提高对海洋边界层（MBL）中气溶胶-云-毛毛雨相互作用以及气溶胶的物理化学和时空特性的理解；(2)提高了对上层海洋、陆地和大气之间的化学和物理耦合的认识。集中观测期为一个月，选择在2008年10月，因为这个月是平流层积云覆盖面积最大、东南信风最强、上层海洋与低层大气耦合最紧密的月份。更广泛的影响：实地和随后的分析阶段将涉及并促进相当大的国际合作，并为一些科学家和研究生提供重要的培训。该领域产生的数据集将促进各种数值过程模式的发展，并提供宝贵的约束条件，这将加速区域和全球气候模式的改进。

This is an award to support continued planning for VOCALS-REx. It is not a commitment by NSF to fund the field project. That funding decision will be determined by means of further review. The Variability of the American Monsoon Systems (VAMOS) Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study - Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) is an international field experiment designed to better understand physical and chemical processes central to the climate system of the Southeast Pacific (SEP) region. The climate of the SEP region is a tightly coupled system involving poorly understood interactions between the ocean, the atmosphere, and the land. VOCALS-REx will focus on interactions between clouds, aerosols, marine boundary layer (MBL) processes, upper ocean dynamics and thermodynamics, coastal currents and upwelling, large-scale subsidence, and regional diurnal circulations, to the west of the Andes mountain range. The field experiment is ultimately driven by a need for improved model simulations of the coupled climate system in both the SEP and over the wider tropics and subtropics. The coordination through VOCALS of observational and modeling efforts will lead to improved understanding and predictions by climate and regional forecasting agencies.Multi-disciplinary intensive observational datasets will be obtained during VOCALS-REx from several platforms including aircraft, a research vessel, and a surface land site. These datasets will be used to test a coordinated set of hypotheses that are organized into two broad themes: (1) improved understanding of aerosol-cloud-drizzle interactions in the marine boundary layer (MBL) and the physicochemical and spatiotemporal properties of aerosols; (2) improved understanding of the chemical and physical couplings between the upper ocean, the land, and the atmosphere. The intensive observational period will be a month long and will take place during October 2008, chosen because it is the month during which the coverage of stratocumulus over the SEP is at its greatest, the southeast trade winds are at their strongest, and the coupling between the upper ocean and the lower atmosphere is at its tightest. Broader impacts: The field and subsequent analysis phases will involve and foster considerable international collaboration and provide important training for a number of scientists and graduate students. The datasets generated in the field will stimulate the development of a broad range of numerical process models, and provide invaluable constraints that will accelerate the improvement of regional and global climate models.