Large-Scale Air-Sea Interaction over the Tropical Eastern Pacific--Airborne Observations along 95 Degree W TAO Mooring Line during EPIC2001

EPIC（Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate Processes in the Coupled Ocean-Atmospheric System）是美国气候变化研究计划（CLIVAR Program）的一项活动。EPIC 2001由四个部分组成，重点是（i）热带辐合区/暖池现象;（ii）进入热带辐合区的越赤道气流;（iii）海洋上层结构和混合;以及（iv）东南信风区边界层云特性的探索性研究。EPIC 2001的现场阶段定于2001年9月1日至10月15日期间进行，为期6周。除了大气管理局颁发的八个奖项外，这项合作研究还获得了美国国家科学基金会/海洋环境中心和美国国家海洋和大气管理局/海洋地球计划的奖项。在实地阶段，研究人员将收集飞行高度和全球定位系统下投式探空仪的大气观测数据，以及一次性剖面仪的上层海洋观测数据。飞行将在大气天气尺度扰动的不同阶段进行。这些数据集将与TAO系泊观测和卫星遥感相结合，以描述冷舌ITCZ复合体中大气温度、湿度、风、海洋温度、盐度、海流和海气通量的同时大尺度纬向-垂直结构。这些数据将为EPIC 2001年的其他测量提供一个大尺度的视角，这些测量提供了热带太平洋东部海洋和大气的微观和中尺度结构。这项工作很重要，因为它将改善对热带太平洋东部气候变化的理解和建模。

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.During the field phase, the PIs will collect atmospheric observations at flight levels and from GPS dropsondes, and upper ocean observations from expendable profilers. Flights will be carried out at different phases of atmospheric synoptic-scale disturbances. These data sets will be combined with observations from the TAO moorings and satellite remote sensing to describe concurrent large-scale meridional-vertical structures of the atmospheric temperature, humidity, winds, oceanic temperature, salinity, currents and air-sea fluxes in the cold tongue ITCZ complex. These data will provide a large-scale perspective for other EPIC 2001 measurements that provide micro and meso-scale structure of the ocean and atmosphere in the eastern tropical Pacific. The work is important because it will improve understanding and modeling of climate variability over the eastern tropical Pacific.