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Studying Cloud Circulation in the Tropical Atlantic

A massive international effort using air, space, surface, and sub-surface platforms to improve climate models and weather prediction.

6 months

At sea

Saildrone Explorers

35,000 nm

Distance traveled

Access Data Set

Year

2020

Operation Area

Tropical Atlantic

Purpose

A six-month mission in a productive region of the western Tropical Atlantic as part of NOAA's Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC) and the European multinational Elucidating the Role of Clouds-Circulation Coupling in Climate field observation (EUREC4A). The goal was to understand air-sea interactions with a focus on mesoscale ocean eddies and their influences on atmospheric shallow convection and formation of shallow cumulus clouds.

Results

The saildrone fleet coordinated with the participating research vessels, aircraft, and other autonomous observing platforms, enabling simultaneous observation of the lower-atmosphere and the upper-ocean with an unprecedented spatio-temporal multi-scale sampling

Access Data Set

The researchers were using primarily satellite altimetry to identify surface eddies, but when they began sampling with the saildrones, they discovered sub-surface structures that did not have an imprint on the surface. The saildrones are particularly adept at measuring the layers between the atmosphere and upper ocean, layers that are not as easily observed by ship-based instruments.

“We’ll have a really nice matching on the dynamics of the ocean, how the sub-surface dynamics work with the surface and how the surface ocean works with the atmosphere, and also in terms of the biogeochemistry, CO2 uptake, heat uptake, and energy exchange. This is really important because it will help to improve not only numerical weather prediction models but also climate models and shed light on new physical processes.”

Sabrina Speich

Physical oceanographer at France’s Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique

Press

Ocean Science

January 2020

PMEL Joins the Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC)

PMEL's Atmospheric Chemistry Group has been participating in the Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC) onboard the RV Ronald H. Brown in the tropical North Atlantic east of Barbados.

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News

Tropical Atlantic Mission Wraps Up After 6 Months at Sea

Two saildrones have been collecting data about air-sea interactions in a productive region of the western Tropical Atlantic on behalf of NOAA.

Studying Tropical Air-Sea Interactions in the Atlantic

Five saildrones deployed from Barbados observed ocean-atmosphere interactions at the sub-mesoscale improve climate models and weather prediction.

Saildrone Atlantic Fleet Studies Tropical Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions

Five saildrones were deployed from Barbados to join the EUREC4A/ATOMIC project, a massive international effort using air, space, surface, and sub-surface platforms to improve climate models and weather prediction.