US CLIVAR NAME Science page

North American Monsoon Experiment

NAME is a joint CLIVAR-GEWEX process study and the North American implementation of the WCRP/CLIVAR/VAMOS Program. Its overall aim is to determine the sources and limits of predictability of warm season precipiation over North America, with emphasis on times scales ranging from seasonal to interannual.

Overall science objectives: Better understanding and a more realistic simulation of

warm season convective processes in complex terrain;

intraseasonal variability of the monsoon;

response of warm season circulation and precipitation to slowly varying, potentially predictable oceanic and continental boundary conditions; and

the evolution of the North American Monsoon and its variability.

In order to meet these objectives, several goals for the Enhanced Observing Period (July/August 2004) were established. These goals include:

To describe the daily cycle of convective rainfall over the region

To clarify relationships between convection and moisture flux from the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf of California

To describe the structure/location of precipitation systems, including mesoscale convective systems (MCS) within the diurnal cycle

To diagnose mechanisms that force mesoscale rainfall systems for adequate modeling

To clarify Gulf of California surge/low level jet/precipitation relationships

NAME data and products are maintained by UCAR/JOSS located at: http://www.ofps.ucar.edu/name/

Modeling Strategy:

Prior to the 2004 EOP, a modeling strategy was outlined for NAME. Three distinct roles that observations plya in model development and assessment for NAME are:

to guide model development by providing constraints on model simulations at the process level (e.g. convection, land/atmosphere and ocean/atmosphere interactions);

to help assess the validity of model simulations of key NAMS phenomena (e.g. low level jets, tropical storms, Gulf surges), and the linkages to regional and larger scale climate variability;

to provide initial and boundary conditions, ad verification data for model predictions.

The first NAMAP (North American Monsoon Assessment Project) workshop was held in June 2003. The goal was to establish baseline control simulations for more focused reasearch as well as to provide measurement targets for the NAME 2004 Field Campaign.

Data Management:

All NAME data are mantained at the UCAR/JOSS site in Boulder, Colorado. For a complete listing of available data, go to: http://data.eol.ucar.edu/master_list/?project=NAME

The NAME Data Management plan can be found at: http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/name/dm/name_dm_index.html

Upcoming Events:

NAME 2004 Data Analysis Meeting and Seventh Meeting of the NAME Science Working Group (SWG-7)
Mexico City, MX, 9-11 March, 2005