The Equatorial Mesoscale Experiment (EMEX): An Overview

Abstract

During the Southern Hemisphere summer, an aircraft research program (EMEX: the Equatorial Monsoon Experiment) was conducted over the tropical ocean north of Australia to investigate the mesoscale convective systems in the monsoon flow. EMEX was conducted concurrently and in the same location as the Australian Monsoon Experiment (AMEX) and the Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange Program (STEP). Airborne Doppler radar and other aircraft instrumentation were used to document the horizontal and vertical air motions in ten major cloud systems. The EMEX airborne platforms were supplemented by a surface Doppler radar and the enhanced AMEX upper-air sounding network. The data obtained should significantly enhance the knowledge of vertical motions in tropical clouds and thereby lead to a better understanding of how these clouds influence the large-scale tropical circulation and climate. An overview of the project is given in which the weather situations are reviewed and examples of the data are shown. Some initial results are discussed, together with their significance to the scientific objectives of EMEX and the parent program, the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Program (TOGA).