NOAA Pan American Climate Studies

1
NOAA Pan American Climate Studies

• Objective To extend the scope and improve the
  skill of operational seasonal-to-interannual
  climate prediction over the Americas
• tao.atmos.washington.edu/pacs

2
Objectives better understanding and more
realistic simulation of

• boundary forcing of seasonal-to-interannual
  climate variations over the Americas
• the evolution of tropical sea surface temperature
  anomalies
• the seasonally varying mean climate over the
  Americas and adjacent ocean regions,
• the structure of the ITCZ/cold tongue complex
• the relevant land surface processes.

3
PIs with L.A./Caribbean projects

• For abstracts and more PIs see www.cdc.noaa.gov/
  ajr/abstracts.html
• Dave Enfield, AOML
• Brant Liebmann (Univ of Colo.) and Jose Marengo
  (BR)
• Art Douglas Mexican Monsoon

• Mike Douglas, met obs in S. Am.
  www.nssl.noaa.gov/ projects/pacs/
• Roberto Mechoso (UCLA) coupled modeling
• Julia Nogues-Paegle (Utah) -- S. Am. low level
  jet

4
More LAm/Caribbean PACS projects

• Hugo Berbery (AR, at UMD) monsoon diagnostics
• Henry Diaz (CDC), paleoclimate, hurricanes, and
  health
• Vern Kousky, NCEP, variability of the SAM
• Anji Seth, IRI, ppt in S.Am

• Rong Fu (AZ) modelling of ppt in S.Am.
• Ben Kirtman (COLA) modeling of the SAM
• David Neelin, UCLA, dynamics of drought in S.Am
  during ENSO

5
CLIVAR/VAMOS

• Variability of the American Monsoon Systems
• International science coordination mechanism
• Focus on the monsoon systems in order to
  capitalise on major heat sources that shape the
  global atmospheric circulation.

6
VAMOS Major objectives

• to describe, understand, and model the mean and
  seasonal aspects of the American monsoon systems,
  
• to investigate their predictability and to make
  predictions to a feasible extent,
• to prepare products in view of meeting societal
  needs

7
VAMOS Focus

• rainfall and the probability of occurrence of
  significant weather events such as tropical
  storms and temperature extremes
• includes associated perturbations in the
  planetary, synoptic and mesoscale flow patterns
  including those in the winter hemisphere.
• region of interest covers both the tropical and
  the extratropical Americas and surrounding
  oceans.

8
VAMOS Science Panel

• Roberto Mechoso (chair) UCLA, USA Victor Magaña
  (vice-chair), UNAM, Mexico
• Tony Busalacchi, NASA, USA Steve Esbensen,
  Oregon State Univ, USA
• H. Fuenzalida, Univ. de Chile, Santiago
• Vern Kousky, NOAA/CPC, USA
• Antonio Moura, IRI, USA Joel Picaut, NASA, USA
• Jim Shuttleworth,UnivArizona, USA
• Pedro da Silva Dias, USP, Brazil
• Carolina Vera, CIMA, UBA, Argentina
• Mike Wallace, Univ. of Washington, USA

9
VAMOS Working groups

• Process Studies (Bob Weller)
• Data (Victor Magaña)
• Sustained Measurements (Vern Kousky)
• Stratus Working Group (Bruce Albrecht)
• South American Monsoon (Pedro Silva Dias and
  Julia Paegle, co-chairs)

10
Workshop on VAMOS and PACS Field Programmes

• São Paulo, BR on March 30-April 2, 1998
• Develop plans field work to be done as part of
  VAMOS
• Co-ordinate monsoon research programmes by the
  nations in the Americas
• 60 participants from 10 countries.
• For report and programs descriptions see
  www.clivar.ucar.edu/vamos_rep_toc.html