EPIC-2001: ITCZ and Stratus Regime Climatologies in the PACS Context

Jeffrey Hare, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado & NOAA ETL, Boulder CO jeffrey.hare@colorado.edu

Chris Fairall and Taneil Uttal, NOAA Environmental Technology Lab, Boulder CO

Bob Weller, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Woods Hole MA

During EPIC-2001 (Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate), comprehensive measurements were obtained from two cruise legs on the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown within the EPIC ITCZ and stratocumulus regimes. The ETL observational systems included the W-band cloud radar, a ceilometer and ship-based turbulent flux suite. These systems provided a continuous record of clouds, rainfall, wind speed and direction, heat fluxes, momentum flux, radiative fluxes, air and sea surface temperatures, and specific humidity within the convective and stable regions.

For the past 4 years, the NOAA Environmental Technology Lab has been making climatological measurements of the same variables in the Pan American Climate Studies (PACS) region, along the 95W-110W Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) buoy lines. The high quality turbulent flux and cloud observations in the PACS region have provided a baseline from which to interpret the EPIC-2001 data set.

We will present an analysis of the EPIC-2001 flux and cloud data set within the context of the nearby TAO/PACS climatology. The statistical presentation of the climatologies should be of value to modelers as well as PACS and EPIC co-investigators.