In particular, the influence of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans on the rainfall, and the relation between glacier runoff and ENSO are studied.
Another programme is concerned with the reconstruction of paleo-climatological records up to the Holocene (10,000 years) by various means. This programme has already provided interesting results on the long-term variations of the ITCZ over the Amazon basin.
More information on these projects can be found in Appendix 3.
Dr. V. Magaña summarised the present status of the Inter American Institute (IAI), and presented his views on possible
co-operations and funding mechanisms useful to implement and fund VAMOS. Prior to the meeting, Panel members had met with A. Rabufetti (President of IAI), C Ereño (Chair of IAI's Executive Council), and B. Wilcox (IAI's Chief Scientific Officer). The discussions with the IAI representatives resulted in a possible scenario for a collaboration between VAMOS and IAI:
1. VAMOS, acting as the advisory group for IAI in VAMOS related science, will define short to medium term scientific priorities.
2. VAMOS and IAI will together define a sub-group of activities (within those that are necessary to address the scientific priorities) that can most effectively be accomplished by acting through IAI.
3. IAI will examine which of the activities specified in (2) are already being adequately addressed by existing IAI projects.
4. VAMOS and IAI will seek new funds from the agencies that contribute to IAI (e.g. NSF, NOAA) to support projects defined in (3) as being gaps in IAI's programme.
Currently IAI already funds projects relevant to VAMOS in several areas (most relevant in italics):
1. Understanding climate variability in the Americas
- ENSO and interannual climate variability
- Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Interaction
- Hydrology (water resources)
2. Comparative studies of ecosystems, biodiversity, land and water resource in the Americas
3. Changes in the composition of the atmosphere
4. Integrated assessments, human dimension and applications
- Crosscutting all three preceeding categories
Most of the Science Agenda for IAI is now being implemented by the Collaborative Research Networks (CRN's), a new programme of the IAI. This programme is designed to encourage the development of research networks composed of scientific teams from across the Americas that focus on global change problems of regional importance. More information about the CRN's relevant to VAMOS can be found in the Appendix and under: http://www.iai.int
Dr. Steve Esbensen reported about the progress with the ongoing US projects EPIC and PACS.
The implementation of PACS research activities beyond the year 2000 is being affected by a major reorganisation of the U.S. CLIVAR Program. U.S. CLIVAR will focus initially on phenomena in three overlapping geographic regions -- the Pacific, Pan American and Atlantic regions (see Fig. 1). The U.S. CLIVAR SSC will establish three interacting implementation panels -- Pacific, Pan American and Atlantic.
Fig. 1: US-CLIVAR Principal Research Areas
It is expected that PACS will become an interagency component of the U.S. CLIVAR programme. The PACS Science Working Group, which has been providing advice directly to the NOAA PACS grants programme, would evolve into the Pan American implementation panel for U.S. CLIVAR.
The scientific objectives of the new CLIVAR PACS initiative will be unchanged from the current PACS program, and will continue to map closely onto VAMOS scientific objectives. The Pan American panel will focus on ocean-atmosphere-land interactions in the Pan American sector, with a strong emphasis on the role of land surface processes in climate variability.
It is expected that a major focus of the Pan American panel will be the development of a joint CLIVAR-GEWEX activity to address understanding the essential mechanisms and improving simulations of North American warm season rainfall.
An ad hoc U.S. EPIC Science Working Group was formed to add the proposed U.S. implementation plans to the EPIC Science Plan, resulting in a entitled: A Science and Implementation Plan for EPIC: 'An Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate Processes in the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere System' (available under: http://tao.atmos.washington.edu/pacs).
Figure 2 shows the proposed timeline for U.S. observational activities in support of EPIC. The foundation of U.S. EPIC field activities is a five year period (2000-2004) of enhanced monitoring of the annual cycle and interannual variability of the cold-tongue/ITCZ complex (CTIC) and the subtropical stratiform cloud deck region in the southeastern Pacific. More intensive observations are proposed for a 6-8 week Intensive Observation Period during the July-September 2001 time period. An intensive observing period in the stratus decks off Chile and Peru (Stratus II) is proposed for 2003.
U.S. EPIC PIs wish to collaborate with other VAMOS scientists in Latin American to better understand the connections between the CTIC and stratus regime and the coastal and land surface processes in the Mexican, Central American and South American regions.
Dr. J. Leese reported on the current status of the GCIP programme. GCIP will have its final observational period in the Missouri River Basin in 1999/2000. More details about this project can be found in the appendix. The second part of his presentation highlighted the GCIP data collection and management principles. (A summary can be found in Appendix 3).
For the future GCIP is interested to work with VAMOS on the North American Low-Level Jet which affects the SW of the U.S.
Dr. J. Shuttleworth provided the participants with an update on GEWEX activities relevant to VAMOS. Especially, he highlighted the new hydrological initiated by GEWEX. This new initiative would complement and give added value to the research that will take place in global change research programmes during the first decade of the next millennium. Another important project presented to the participants was an overview of the GEWEX American Prediction Project (GAPP) which is an extension of the GEWEX Continental-scale International Project (GCIP) planned to occur in the 2001 to 2007 time frame. This project will build on GCIP but extend its focus all of the United States and northern Mexico and will therefore have large intersects with VAMOS. More details about GAPP can be found in the Appendix 3.
Dr. J. Leese reported to the panel that the GEWEX Science Steering Group proposes to the JSC a Co-ordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP). This effort should be a co-ordinated study with CLIVAR and ACSYS and take place in 2001-2002 to characterise the climate system with a particular focus on the (heat) source and sink regions driving and modifying circulations that affect the climate system and many of its anomalies. VAMOS should consider to organise their field work in co-operation with GEWEX. This item was also discussed through the executive session of the panel (see section 7.3).
Dr. Julia Paegle reviewed the first meeting of the SAMS working group held in October 22-24, 1999 at AOML (Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory) in Miami. The meeting goals were to promote interaction and co-ordinate efforts of scientists interested on advancing the understanding and predictability of summer precipitation over South America. The participants were asked to:
1. assess the current state of knowledge on the South American Monsoon,
2. identify gaps in this knowledge and field experiments (existing or already planned) designed to close these gaps,
3. prioritise problems and
4. define special observing needs and numerical experiments as required for specific topics.
A special session on the SAMS has been proposed to take place during the 6th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography (6ISHMO), to be held April 3-7, 2000 in Santiago, Chile. This will allow for an exposure of VAMOS science plans to a broad audience of interested scientists, further develop implementation planning, and entrain greater participation in the programme.
The participants demonstrated a keen interested in advancing knowledge on the SAMS through a programme of complementary activities on empirical studies, enhanced observational systems and development of numerical models that address the unique challenges presented by the South American steep orography and variable surface conditions.
The meeting discussed components, evolution and variability of SAMS, the relative importance of the Altiplano and Amazon heat sources, atmospheric teleconnections between the Americas during austral summer, numerical modelling applications for the region and ocean-atmospheric interactions.
Current plans for a two-months field-experiment of the low-level jet east of the Andes were extensively discussed as well as a proposal for an expanded observational network for five years to improve monitoring of climate variability over the region. The discussion was lively and indicative of the support and interest that this research topic currently generates in several South-American countries and the USA. The role of international initiatives such as those of CLIVAR through VAMOS, the IAI and national funding institutions was also addressed. There was a general consensus in the readiness of the region to embark and support collaborative research on SAMS.
Such readiness is partly due to the enhanced regional awareness on the impact that summer precipitation and its variations have on water resource management, energy production, agriculture and health. In addition, links between summer precipitation over South America and inter-annual to intraseasonal processes such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Atlantic sea surface temperatures and the Madden-Julian Oscillation are indicative of the inherent predictability of this precipitation regime. Improving the knowledge on these physical processes is a pre-requisite to substantial gains in the prediction of summer rains.
To better understand the dynamics of these links it is necessary to more completely quantify these relationships in the historical record. This quantification should be multidisciplinary and involve assessments of related variability in water resources, agricultural yields, tropical diseases and availability of energy. The impact of rainfall and temperature variability on human activities needs to be determined to assess vulnerability and to develop prediction techniques for better resource management.
The discussion isolated the following questions that limit our understanding of the SAMS:
• dynamical processes responsible for the onset, demise and character of the monsoon over different regions of South America.
• cause-effect relationships for monsoon modulations in scales from intraseasonal to interdecadal, including teleconnection patterns that span the Pan-American region.
• variability of the atmospheric and terrestrial components of the water and energy cycles at various time scales, including the role of -level flow in the vicinity of the Andes
• physical processes that cause the organisation of nocturnal meso-scale convective systems in the La Plata river basin, and whether these are linked to low-level jets similar to those found over the North American plains.
• effect of the ITCZ and Atlantic SST's in the modulation of the SAMS
• land-surface effects in various time scales.
The discussions held at the meeting identified inadequate observations (both in quality and coverage) as well as limited availability of historical data over South America as the current most limiting factors to adequately address these questions. This situation will be partly alleviated in the future with the LBA experiment over Amazonia, availability of TRMM measurements and other products obtained by remote platforms. The discussion also identified as main priorities the recovery of precipitation and surface temperature data which in some countries go back to the beginning of the 20th century and endorsement of currently planned activities to enhance climate monitoring and deploy a field experiment on the low-level jet east of the Andes. A report of this meeting is available from Dr. Julia Paegle or under:
Dr. José Meitín presented the current status of the data system designed for PACS. This includes a description of the data collection and archival activities on-going at UCAR Joint Office for Science Support and NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory. He presented a strategy which has been applied for PACS, but might also be useful for data management under VAMOS:
1. Development of a Data Strategy:
Helpful tools to develop a data strategy for PACS were:
a) Meetings/Workshops
b) Questionaires
c) Distributed Data Archives
2. Data Support and Services
The elements of PACS Data Support and Services are:
a) Web Pages
b) Data collection and quality control
c) Interactive data systems (e.g. CODIAC)
d) Long term elements
e) Links to other data sources
3. Data Collection and Quality Control
Data sets currently being collected, processed and archived include:
a) Geostationary satellite data from GOES-East and West;
b) Polar orbiting DMSP data (liquid water, retrieved rainfall, integrated water vapour) processed by NOAA Climate Diagnostic Center;
c) Special upper-air soundings (including pilot balloons) in the PACS region;
d) GTS-transmitted surface and upper-air reports, and
e) higher resolution data from the PACS-1997 pilot studies (and ship cruise).
A PACS data management World Wide Web (WWW) access page has been developed and maintained which contains distributed links to existing data centres and sources, as well as, meteorological and oceanographic information. Investigation of historical datasets and new data sources for the PACS region continues. Some contacts have been established to Latin American data centres and their climatological datasets of interest to PACS investigators.
When the meeting reconvened in the morning of the second day, Dr. Mechoso outlined the principles to be considered by each VAMOS component in the preparation of their contribution to the implementation plan.
1. Science questions to be addressed
2. Relevant theory, modeling, and field programmes
3. Implementation document (including. requirements for infrastructure, personnel, etc.)
4. Appointment of a Scientific Working Group
5. Consideration of a societal impact component
6. Starting date, funding review process
7. Requirements of a Project Office
A template for the implementation plan in a particular area was developed by Dr. K. Sawyer and can be found in Appendix 3.
Dr. Matilde Nicolini reported on the progress towards a proposal for a field experiment on the South American Low Level Jet. The main goal of the experiment is to better understand the role of the low-level circulation east of the Andes on the moisture and energy exchange between tropics and extratropics, and on the regional climate and climate variability. A central motivation of the experiment is to provide validation data sets to determine the uncertainty of circulation features, including moisture flux in model simulations and analyses. The current schedule for the experiment starts with a build-up phase in 2000 and culminates with the fieldwork itself toward the end of 2001. The latter is divided into a special observing period of about 3-4 months and an imbedded intensive observation period for one month. (For more details see Appendix 3).
Dr. Mechoso recommended sharpening the focus and the justification for the field experiment with special emphasis to the 'climate' component. There were some concerns whether the current timetable is realistic although it would match with the proposed CEOPS observational period.
Dr. Bruce Albrecht reported on the planning status for a field experiment on marine stratus/stratocumulus off the coast of Peru. The overall goal of the VAMOS Stratus Studies Program is to develop and promote scientific activities leading to an improved understanding and model simulation of the effects of eastern Pacific stratus decks on the Variability of American Monsoon Systems.
The justification for this project evolves out of three items:
• There are very few observations in the eastern Pacific, particularly along the west of South America
• Stratus/Stratocumulus clouds have a large impact on the energy budget
• The parameterisation especially in climate models is still very poor, mainly due to inadequate knowledge of the processes.
Dr. Albrecht indicated that the group intends to be aware of other projects being active in this area during the next years, as EPIC, the South American Coastal Stratus Experiment and Chilean programme with tidal stations and a proposed moored array and a proposed South East Pacific Ocean Met. Array (Proposed by CPPS).
The VAMOS panel recommended the group to broaden their view to match better with the EPIC plan. This larger scope means to include the east Pacific cold tongue and warm pool of Mexico as well. As already stated for the LLJ working group the justification for this problem should be put in the large scale climatic context and a connection to the LLJ should be emphasised, e.g. interaction between the altiplano convergence and the coastal stratus.
Dr. José Ruttlant provided the participants with a first draft of a proposal for a field programme on marine stratus (see Appendix 3).
Dr. V. Magaña reviewed basic concepts of a data management structure under VAMOS. The VAMOS data management will be based, as far as possible, on the principle of free and open access to data. Some meeting participants from South American countries expressed their concerns that an open data policy will be hard to met, since data distribution is a source of income for several Meteorological Services in the region.
Although CLIVAR might consider the establishment of major data centres, it is assumed that the data management will have to rely on distributed data centres. Dr. Magaña provided the panel with a list of existing data sources. In addition it was pointed out that the table in the CLIVAR Implementation Plan already serves as a list of data set relevant to VAMOS (available under: http://www.dkrz.de/clivar/vol2/pg3_new.html )
Dr. A. Villwock as a member of the recently formed CLIVAR Data Task Team will report on the next meeting of the joint WOCE/CLIVAR Data Products Committee in April about the activities of the VAMOS data base group.
(More details can be found in Appendix 3).
4. General Discussion on Organisation of International VAMOS Programmes
4.1 Global Environmental Facility (GEF)
The discussion about possible international funding sources was started in the afternoon by a short presentation on the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) provided by Dr. David Rogers. Dr. Rogers had recently met with Dr. Patricio Bernal, IOC Executive Secretary and Assistant Director General of UNESCO. GEF is an interim funding mechanism to help developing nations address adverse climate change impact issues. The facility provides grants and concessional funding to recipient countries for projects and programs that protect the global environment and promote sustainable economic growth. (More information about GEF can be found in the Appendix 3 and under http://www.gefweb.org/ )
Dr. Rogers suggested that GEF funds might be applicable to VAMOS projects whose activities would contribute to various South American countries ability to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. That CLIVAR/VAMOS has long term goals and support from Annex I and Annex II Parties to the Framework Convention lends itself to developing components of a climate change monitoring system for the region. A group of meeting participants discussed two components that are important to VAMOS and that may be of interest to GEF.
One component consists of a network of buoys capable of monitoring the physical, chemical and biological structure of the ocean off the west coast of South America from Colombia to the southern tip of Chile. A proposal has been submitted to the Chilean government to fund a network of buoys with Chilean waters to measure currents, surface fluxes, sea surface temperature and salinity. These buoys are intended to prepare Chile for the adverse affects of the inter-annual variability of the climate, which contributes to ENSO events. Additional sensors could extend the capability of these buoys to provide long term climate change information. Similar networks are envisaged off the coasts of Columbia, Ecuador and Peru, applicable to both short-term climate variability problems as well as long term climate change monitoring.
The other component consists of a series of monitoring sites located within continental south America, initially forming part of the VAMOS network designed to investigate low level jets, but additionally equipped to make carbon budget related measurements and to measure other parameters most relevant to climate change.
As a research programme, CLIVAR/VAMOS is uniquely placed to provide both understanding of the processes that contribute to climate variability and to guide the development of a system of observations that can be used to help mitigate the effects of adverse climate change for the nations of South America.
There was agreement on the interest to prepare proposals to be submitted through the World Bank, UNEP or UNDP. Prior to this, however, VAMOS should prepare a short consultative document to discuss with GEP and others to ensure that the work proceeds along the appropriate track and to determine the scale of the effort.
Drs. Mechoso and Rogers are the preliminary points of contact for the overall effort. They will develop the initial points of contact with GEF in consultation with the other members of the VAMOS group interested in using this funding mechanism.
Drs. Nuñez and da Silva Dias are the preliminary points of contact for the buoy programme and the land-based observing network, respectively.
4.2 General Discussion
In the following there was a general discussion about the organisation of international VAMOS projects, and the possibilities for their funding and implementing.
A number of issues were identified by panel members, and invited participants. Some of these issues had been discussed with the SSG co-chairs and the ICPO.
The lack of enough funding for VAMOS meetings was mentioned first. CLIVAR through the ICPO and the JCRF of WCRP will not be able to provide more resources for meetings. These resources have to come through other national funds. IAI expressed willingness to provide limited support for the attendance of panel members to meetings of relevant CRN's.
Next the participants commented on a possible role of the IAI or an International CLIVAR or VAMOS Board in administering international funds for implementation of VAMOS research programmes. There was a general agreement on the absence of a practical way to either use the IAI or to create an Intergovernmental VAMOS Board to funnel all funds via neutral (international) medium. Although IAI might help in the future or second stage of VAMOS to serve as an international pool for funding VAMOS related research, e.g. by having joint proposals with NOAA or NSF, currently no realistic way for administering international funds could be seen. Since it is highly likely that the funding for any VAMOS project will at least partly be provided by US resources, there is still the danger that VAMOS be perceived as an extension of US efforts.
The role of a VAMOS Project Office was regarded as a different issue. The participants felt that for the implementations of specific VAMOS projects some sort of co-ordination office would be of great help. There was a lenghty discussion about the tasks of such an office and its possible locations. It was decided that a location in Argentina or Brazil would bring in the most advantages for hosting a Co-ordination Office since the location at IAI was not favoured in the first place because the participants felt that the office should be closer to the center of gravity of science projects in progress at any one time.
On the morning of the third day, scientists involved in climate research at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Buenos Aires presented a series of seven lectures. Abstracts of these lectures can be found in Appendix 3.
Dr. A. Piola gave an overview of the South Atlantic Climate Change Experiment (SACC) and its relevance to VAMOS (the full abstract can be found in Appendix 3).
The South Atlantic Climate Change (SACC) initiative derives from a series of meetings sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, and attended by scientists from Argentina, Brazil, United States and Uruguay. The goals of these meetings were to define priorities on regional and basin-scale climate variability and global change issues, and to promote the communication and collaboration among scientists and scientific institutions of the Americas. The complete document prepared for CLIVAR can be found at: http://www.oce.orst.edu/po/research/matano2/index.html.
The primary goal of SACC is to better understand the interactive relationships between the southwestern South Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) and the larger scale climate behaviour. The variability of the ocean in the Malvinas confluence zone seems to have significant impact on the variability of precipitation in northern Argentina and southern Brazil. It is not clear what the driving force for this strong interannual variability is. A possible relationship with the LLJ circulation might also be considered.
In response to the SACC initiative a series of research proposals have been submitted to international and national funding organizations. These include the International Consortium for the Study of Global and Climate Change in the Western South Atlantic - Argentina (SHN), Brazil (IOSUP and INPE), USA (OSU, RSMAS/UM), Uruguay (UR) - which was funded by IAI for the period 1999-2003. Southwest Atlantic Circulation Experiment - OSU, LDEO, SIO, RSMAS/UM, NOAA - which was submitted to NSF. Finally, the Bifurcation of the South Equatorial Current - IOUSP, INPE, FAPESP. NOAA/AOML, URI - which was submitted to NSF.
The break-out group recommended to reaffirm the principles outlined in the Report of the VAMOS Workshop on Field Programmes of free and open access; and the strategy of distributed data centres to the fullest extent possible, rather than through establishment of one centralised data centre.
The break-out group also had a series of specific recommendations for VAMOS:
1. To establish a WWW-based Central Information Source for Data.
- Ownership and control by an existing institution.
- Designate a mirror site (N Hemisphere-S Hemisphere)
- WWW site will have information about VAMOS data and links to data sources.
- Not a data archive.
2. The Panel Chair to work through the WMO Secretary General to the Region II and IV Permanent Representatives to inform about VAMOS activities, to suggest and encourage full co-operation on data access.
3. The establishment of a strong co-ordination with GEWEX and, in particular, the reliance on GEWEX for Land Surface Data sets (e.g. LBA, GCIP, PACS).
4. To develop infrastructure requirements for data access based on needs as outlined in the VAMOS Science Plan.
The working group assumed that work on data will comply with several guidelines:
1. VAMOS data sets will be begin with the establishment of VAMOS Projects
2. VAMOS Information Centre (WWW) will require some type of support, thus VAMOS will have to identify resources for this activity.
3. In-situ and retrospective data are archived at existing National Data Centers, therefore VAMOS should begin to establish agreements with participating countries to allow access and distribution of operational data sets prior to its first field campaign.
The break-out group formulated hypotheses about a connection of the heating over the Amazon basin and the Altiplano which indirectly affects the subsidence and the coastal jet that, and the low level cloud systems off the coast of Peru.
The time line of this project, which should also include oceanographic studies in the southeastern Pacific and in the cold tongue (upwelling) region, is to map it with the EPIC Phase I (2000-2003 (oceanographic). A coastal stratus experiment could be initiated for Jan.-Feb. 2001 and another two months period in Aug.- Sept. 2001.
The second phase of the stratus experiment (coastal phase) could take place during the second phase of EPIC (focus on the divergence with an upper air array and combined aircraft / ship observations in Jan./Feb. 2003).
The group recognized that a series of actions have to be taken in short order:
1. Include modelling issues in its plans.
2. Expand membership of the VAMOS Stratus/Stratocumulus Working Group by recruiting a 'Blue ocean' oceanographer, and a large-scale modeller
3. Develop a new acronym
A summary of the current status of the Stratus project can be found in Appendix 3.
6.3South American Low Level Jet Break-out Group
The break-out group suggested an additional monitoring programme to determine the interannual variability of the LLJ. The original plan to have the intense observational period in 2001 was postponed to 2003 which was regarded as more realistic (funding, logistics, etc.). It was noticed that such a schedule does not agree with that of CEOPS.
6.4 Discussion on break-out group reports
The three break-out groups were asked to improve their proposals in two important ways:
• To establish more clearly the way in which each project addresses CLIVARs scientific goals. This implies to place more emphasis on the relevance of the project to better understand climate and climate variability. It was recognized that VAMOS topics will likely have a GEWEX component. Nevertheless, CLIVAR concerns must be first priority and GEWEX aspects primarily addressed by establishing appropriate collaborations.
• The problems of Ocean-Atmosphere, and Land-Atmosphere interaction should be given similar attention.
In addition, the Stratus Working group was asked to broaden its scope to map better on the EPIC plan. This group will be chaired by Drs. B. Albrecht and J. Ruttlant. For the data base working group Drs. C. Ropelewski and J. Meitín will take the lead and the Working Group on the South American Low Level Jet will be co-chaired by Drs. M. Nicolini, J. Marengo and M. Douglas. Dr. Jan Paegle will act as the lead author for the LLJ implementation document.
The executive panel session was held Tuesday, March 16, 4-6:30 pm.
Dr. M. Wallace's efforts in the creation stages of the VAMOS project was very much acknowledged. It was noted, however, that neither he nor Dr. H. Fuenzalida were able to attend the panel meetings held so far. In addition, they have not been very active in panel matters in recent times. The panel felt that replacements had to be appointed without delay in view of the quick pace of the programme.
The panel nominated Dr. J. Rutllant, a Chilean scientist who already co-chairs the Stratus Working Group to replace Dr. Fuenzalida. Dr. P. Aceituno was mentioned as an alternative candidate, but it was thought that he might be very busy with the organisation of the 6th Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography of the American Meteorological Society.
Dr. Julia Paegle was nominated to replace Dr. M. Wallace. She is one of the co-chairs of the LLJ projects and would also be a member of the US-CLIVAR PACS project. As a back-up Dr. J. Hurrell was suggested.
Dr. S. Esbensen emphasized that EPIC's focus is not restricted to the subtropical stratocumulus. The programme also addresses the cold tongue and the eastern Pacific warm pool. A VAMOS project narrowly focused on stratocumulus, therefore, would not provide appropriate international framework to the US EPIC. In view of these comments, the panel members strongly agreed that the VAMOS program on stratus/stratocumulus should extend its view towards the eastern Pacific to include the warm pool and cold tongue-ITCZ complex. This requires ocean-atmosphere coupling and oceanographic aspects be further strengthened. In general it was felt that the scientific justification of VAMOS projects should emphasize the climate aspect/background addressed by CLIVAR, although it was recognized that a GEWEX component would likely be included through appropriate collaborations. It appears that within the organization of US/CLIVAR, EPIC would be placed under the PBECS effort. There was agreement on the suitability that US EPIC be placed under both US-PACS and PBECS in the new US-CLIVAR organization.
Dr. J. Shuttleworth recalled that the GEWEX Science Steering Group proposes to the JSC a Co-ordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP). This effort would be a co-ordinated study with CLIVAR and ACSYS and take place in the 2001-2002 large-ocean atmosphere interaction as well as in oceanography to characterize the climate system with a particular focus on the (heat) source and sink regions driving and modifying circulations that affect the climate system and many of its anomalies.
CEOP would focus on the major monsoonal circulations:
- Asian/Australian region through GAME and the Joint Air-Sea Monsoon Interaction Experiment (JASMINE)
- American monsoon systems through GCIP, LBA and the Variability of the American Monsoon Systems (VAMOS)
- African monsoons through CATCH
The VAMOS panel endorsed the idea to participate in the proposed GEWEX/CLIVAR CEOP project if this is considered by the JSC and CLIVAR SSG. This implies that the VAMOS field experiments should have their intense observation periods in the CEOP timeframe.
The next panel meeting will be scheduled in conjunction with the 6th Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography of the American Meteorological Society in Santiago de Chile, April 3-7, 2000. More information on the AMS meeting is available under: http://www.SHMO.Chile2000.cl. The exact dates for the panel meeting will be determined at a later date.
Prof. R. Mechoso reminded the participants that early fall 1999 is the deadline for the preparation of strategy/implementation documents for the Low Level Jet, the Stratus Project and the VAMOS data base. The PACS and EPIC documents could be regarded as "a standard". For all documents, the template prepared by Dr. K. Sawyer should be used.
Prof. R. Mechoso warmly thanked all participants in the meeting. He conveyed the general feeling that Dr. C. Vera and her co-workers performed an outstanding job with the local organisation. Additionally, he expressed his acknowledgements for the support from the representative of the CLIVAR Project Office, Dr. A. Villwock, and thanked NOAA/OGP and CLIVAR for their co-sponsoring of this meeting.
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