Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC): NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory

Graphic representing the ATOMIC field campaign with NOAA Ship Ron Brown, P-3 Aircraft, RAAVEN drone, wave gliders, and surface drifters

About

From early January through mid-February 2020, NOAA is partnering with several universities and other programs to lead the Atlantic Tradewind Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC). The field study will take place in the tropical North Atlantic east of Barbados and investigate cloud and air-sea interaction processes with the goal of advancing understanding and prediction of U.S. weather and climate. ATOMIC is the U.S. complement to the European field campaign called EUREC⁴A. This collaborative effort involves a unique combination of ships, piloted and remotely-controlled aircraft, and remotely-controlled ocean vehicles to characterize ocean and atmospheric properties. A suite of instruments will be deployed from NOAA's research ship Ronald H. Brown and WP-3D Orion "Hurricane Hunter" aircraft, and on land.

The focus area of ATOMIC is in the heart of the trade winds and representative of other regions across the global ocean with shallow convective clouds. Some of the Earth’s largest ocean eddies (circular currents) also shed into this region from the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. Conducting the study during winter allows researchers to observe the ocean, air, and clouds in near isolation from hurricane impacts, and to gain better insight into the ocean's involvement in making clouds that affect larger weather and climate patterns.

Improved understanding of air—sea interactions in this region will help advance representations of these processes in NOAA’s model forecast systems. This effort will also improve the numerical guidance used to predict weather and climate extremes.

Science Contact: Chris.Fairall@noaa.gov

Media Contact: Monica.Allen@noaa.gov

Partners

ATOMIC is supported by the NOAA Climate Program Office Climate Variability and Predictability Program, NOAA UAS Program, and NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL), with additional participation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Physical Oceanography program. It involves scientists from PSL, NOAA's Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, the University of Colorado (CIRES and IRISS), the University of Washington along with several other U.S. universities, the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, and pilots and crew from the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.

The EUREC⁴A campaign includes institutions from Germany, France, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Barbados.

Latest GOES-East Satellite image of the region.

The NOAA ATOMIC field campaign will work with scientists from Europe and the island nation of Barbados to study how the upper ocean and lower atmosphere influence and control the development of marine clouds. Graphic by Carlyn Iverson, NOAA Climate.gov.

Forecast Briefings

Follow the Experiment

Twitter: #NOAA_ATOMIC

Air & Sea Chronicles: Hosted on the NOAA Research website, this blog series documents the ATOMIC mission.

Feb 12

Barbadian students tour NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown

Over 50 Barbadian or Bajan students toured NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown during the vessel’s short port call in Bridgetown, Barbados...

Jan 24

A Sea of Sondes

On January 23, we launched our 97th weather balloon – and the last one on this first ATOMIC leg...

Jan 13

Mission Week 1 Recap: Deployments, deployments, deployments

We’ve almost completed a week at sea and so much has happened! It’s all in a day’s (and night’s and weekends’) work...

Jan 10

Scientists begin mission into the trade winds

Hello from the Ronald H. Brown! We are now sailing east from Barbados and starting our measurements of the ocean and the atmosphere...

In the News

Climate.gov tweet chat: Talk with a climate and cloud expert about the ATOMIC scientific mission (1/31/20, Climate.gov)
NOAA Research to Help Caribbean Prepare for Natural Disasters (1/28/20, US Embassy Barbados)
Project is Crucial (1/27/20, Barbados Advocate)
Deployment and Operation of the RAAVEN small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) in Support of NOAA Science during ATOMIC (1/27/20, NOAA)
Wave gliders, ocean drifters and drones to help international researchers solve key climate question (1/23/20, NOAA)
ATOMIC field campaign kicks off in the tropical N. Atlantic (1/9/20, PSL)
NOAA Launches Major Field Campaign to Improve Weather and Climate Prediction (1/9/20, HS Today)
ATOMIC Ocean Expedition to Improve Weather and Climate Prediction (1/8/20, WeatherNation)
NOAA launches major field campaign to improve weather and climate prediction (1/7/20, NOAA)

External links to news articles are provided as a courtesy. Endorsement of non-NOAA sites is not implied.

Photo Gallery

October 2019

Elizabeth Thompson (PSD) installs equipment aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown prior to the campaign.

Credit: Chris Fairall, NOAA

October 2019

PSD's Sergio Pezoa (left) and Chris Fairall prep equipment on the Ronald H. Brown.

Credit: Ludovic Bariteau, CIRES/NOAA

Sergio Pezoa (PSD) installs the W-Band radar on the NOAA P-3 aircraft

December 2019

Sergio Pezoa (PSD) installs the W-Band radar in the belly of the NOAA P-3 aircraft.

Credit: Ken Moran CIRES/NOAA

Deploying a Climate, Temperature, Depth (CTD) Rosette station, which measures
temperature and salinity of sea water at different depths.

January 2020

Deploying a Climate, Temperature, Depth (CTD) Rosette, which measures temperature and salinity of sea water at different depths.

Credit: Richard Marchbanks, CIRES/NOAA

January 2020

Science team members monitor the display information as the CTD rosette makes its way down to a depth of 2,000 meters.

Credit: Richard Marchbanks, CIRES/NOAA

January 2020

PSD's Janet Intrieri (right) launches a radiosonde from the back of the ship.

Credit: Richard Marchbanks, CIRES/NOAA

A view of the NOAA Ship <em>Ronald Brown</em> from the P3 aircraft on Jan 23.

January 23, 2020

A view of the NOAA Ship Ronald Brown from the NOAA P3 aircraft.

Credit: Maria Gehne CIRES/NOAA

Pilot Michael Rhodes of CU/IRISS launches the RAAVEN from Barbados

January 23, 2020

RAAVEN pilot Michael Rhodes of CU/IRISS on Barbados.

Credit: Steven Borenstein, CU/IRISS

Background

Clouds close to the surface of the ocean, called shallow convective clouds, are found around the world – but poorly represented in weather and climate models.

Shallow convection, the effects of clouds on the ocean surface energy budget, and oceanic processes are relevant to a myriad NOAA applications such as climate sensitivity, propagation of the Madden-Julian Oscillations (MJO), hurricane track and intensity, annual movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, midlatitude storm tracks, and marine stratocumulus cloud regions. Shallow convection is also an important issue for weather forecast models over land, with implications for convective inhibition and the initiation of thunderstorms or for solar energy forecasting. The oceanic region of interest is the middle of the Atlantic Warm Pool.

For ATOMIC, NOAA brings their unique observing platforms to complement the European field campaign, EUREC⁴A. NOAA’s science objectives will emphasize energy exchange between the ocean and atmosphere, and cloud–aerosol interactions. It is expected that this work will be done by NOAA in collaboration with the National Science Foundation.

The campaign has been endorsed by the World Climate Research Programme's CLIVAR project.

Map showing location of ATOMIC/EUREC4A observation deployments

Area of field operations for ATOMIC/EUREC⁴A showing 'Tradewind Alley' and the Barbados Cloud Observatory (BCO) central measurement area (the green semi-circle defines the radar coverage). Additional research vessels will contribute to these measurements while also exploring the influence and evolution of ocean eddies that frequently ramble toward Barbados from the southeast along the 'Boulevard des Tourbillons'.

NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown

NOAA WP-3D Orion aircraft

A Wave Glider and SWIFT drifting buoy

CU/IRISS RAAVEN drone

PSL Contributions

NOAA and CIRES researchers from the Physical Sciences Laboratory will collect measurements using the Air-Sea Flux System and additional oceanographic instruments aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown. In partnership with the University of Washington, PSL will collect similar observations of near-surface atmospheric conditions, air-sea energy exchanges, waves, and the upper ocean from six drifting SWIFT drifting buoys and two Wave Gliders. On the NOAA P-3 aircraft, measurements will be taken by the W-Band cloud radar, stepped frequency microwave radiometer for wind, wide swath radar altimeter for waves, and tail Doppler X-band precipitation radar. In parnership with the University of Colorado (CIRES and IRISS), PSL's newly-developed miniFlux instrument package will fly on a small, island-based RAAVEN drone. PSL will also provide forecast guidance for planning and conduct post-experiment data and model analysis.