Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX)

Principal Investigator:
Paul Willis (CIMAS)

Other Scientists:
Chris Samsury (The Weather Channel)
Andy Heymsfield (NCAR)

Objective

The purpose of the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX) is to investigate this mechanism. The overall scientific goal of CEPEX is to establish the respective roles of cirrus radiative effects and surface evaporation in limiting maximum surface temperature in the equatorial Pacific. Of the so-called atmospheric greenhouse gases, water vapor is the most effective in producing surface-atmospheric warming. Water-vapor concentrations increase rapidly over the tropical oceans when sea surface temperatures (SSTs) begin to rise. This effect is greatest over the huge "warm pools" of the Pacific Ocean. The water-vapor content of the atmosphere above the ocean increases by about 15-20% for each 1% of increase in SST. These increasing concentrations of water vapor trap more and more heat, which causes the ocean's surface temperature to rise even further, thus creating a "super-greenhouse effect." Unchecked, this feedback mechanism would result in runaway warming. This is not what is observed, however; even in the "warm pool," SSTs never exceed 304°K (31°C). This suggests that some kind of "thermostat" might exist. Furthermore, deep intensive convection over the tropical oceans (cloud tops reaching altitudes of 18-20 km) occurs only when SSTs exceed about 300°K These observations raise two central questions:

It has been argued that cooling by evaporation from the ocean surface provides such a mechanism. However, observations from space and from the atmospheric boundary layer indicate that this process is not sufficient. Rather, it may be the very high and cold cirrus clouds, streaming from tropical thunderstorms, stretching over large areas of the Pacific, and reflecting the incoming solar radiation that, in fact, act as a thermostat.

Rationale

Direct in-situ measurement of radiation fluxes, cirrus microphysics, evaporation rates, and water-vapor distributions must be obtained over a range of SSTs, from regions where SST is just below the convection threshold temperature to regions where SST exceeds it. Accordingly, the CEPEX experiment domain encompassed the transition (with respect to SST) region from the central equatorial Pacific to the tropical south Pacific or the tropical western Pacific "warm pool."

The primary experimental objectives of CEPEX are to:

  1. Measure, by direct atmospheric observations, the vertical structure of the water-vapor greenhouse effect.
  2. Measure the effect of cirrus on radiation fluxes over the equatorial Pacific.
  3. Measure the east-west gradients of SST and the evaporative and sensible heat-flux from the sea surface along the equatorial Pacific.
  4. Measure the east-west gradients of vertical distribution of water-vapor along the equatorial Pacific.
  5. Explore the microphysical factors contributing to the high albedo of widespread tropical cirrus layers.

Method

CEPEX was conducted in March 1993 with an operations base in Fiji, immediately following the TOGA-COARE study of the western tropical Pacific Ocean, taking advantage of many of COARE's observing systems, including several critical ones that remained in place during the CEPEX field phase. Data from the TOGA-COARE field phase provides information essential to CEPEX (i.e., understanding the most important forcing mechanisms for maintenance of the warm pool). CEPEX contributes to the interpretation of TOGA-COARE results by providing coverage for an extended period and over a larger area and by focusing on the thermodynamic cloud forcing mechanism for the regulation of the ocean warm pool.

Observations from high-altitude aircraft above and below the cirrus are used to estimate the albedo of cirrus and the radiation energy converging into the cirrus, as well as the water-vapor distribution above and below the cirrus, the horizontal gradient of cirrus radiative heating, and the microphysical causes for the brightness of the cirrus. Observations from the NOAA WP-3D and NCAR Electra aircraft, as well as a ship are used to estimate evaporation from the sea surface and its relationship to SST gradients and how the cirrus regulates solar energy flux to the sea surface. In addition, upsondes launched from the ship and islands, dropsondes launched from aircraft, surface buoys, satellite cloud data, and island surface meteorological and radiation sensors complete the CEPEX composite observing system.

Accomplishments

Radar data have been reduced and composites produced for the CEPEX, a project. HRD produced of the Lower Fuselage Radar time composites for the 13 WP-3D flights during CEPEX.

Example: Lower fuselage radar composite for the flight on 3 March 1993. The map represents the horizontal precipitation distribution over ~1h in time and 500 X 500 km in area.

HRD also produced Tail Radar time composites for selected flights to map the three-dimensional precipitation structure for use in analysis of the radiation data.

Example: Tail radar time composite for the flight on 3 March 1993. The map represents vertical and horizontal cross sections through the domain is delineated by the rectangle in the lower left of the lower fuselage composite. The vertical cross section is along the line on the horizontal cross section.
Example: Tail radar time composite for the flight on 3 March 1993. The map represents 8 horizontal cross sections at altitudes from 1-8 km. The domain is delineated by the rectangle in the lower left of the lower fuselage composite.

Future work will focus on analysis of the data from a multi-aircraft portion of the CEPEX experiment on 2 March 1993, a segment with a NOAA P-3 aircraft in the boundary layer taking in situ and radar data, a Lear jet making cirrus microphysical measurements, and the NASA ER-2 making remote sensing measurements over the top of a mesoscale convective system.

willis@aoml.noaa.gov
Updated May 5, 1998