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ARM MJO Investigation Experiment (AMIE)

ARM field campaigns on Gan Island, Maldives, and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, will contribute significantly to concurrent national and international research efforts addressing the question of how the MJO initiates and changes as it passes over the Maritime Continent, and how this differs in observations versus models.

From October 2011 through March 2012, the second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) will obtain data on Gan Island in the Maldives for the ARM Madden-Julian Oscillation [MJO] Investigation Experiment [AMIE] on Gan Island, or AMIE-Gan. This campaign takes place in conjunction with the Dynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (DYNAMO) and Cooperative Indian Ocean experiment on intraseasonal variability in the Year 2011 (CINDY2011) campaigns. AMIE-Gan is one of two components of the overarching AMIE campaign; AMIE-Manus will take place at ARM's Tropical Western Pacific site on Manus Island. Data gathered at these two sites will allow studies of the initiation, propagation, and evolution of convective clouds within the framework of the MJO.

Instruments from the second ARM Mobile Facility will be located at sites like this around Gan Island for a six-month campaign in the Maldives.

The MJO dominates tropical intraseasonal variability, but climate models have difficulty predicting its effects and its interactions with the monsoon and El Niño. AMIE-Gan will measure the area where the MJO begins its eastward propagation, observing the atmosphere, ocean, and air-sea interface. A combination of radars (both ground-based and ship-based), satellites, and atmospheric soundings provided through AMIE, DYNAMO, and CINDY will produce a data set that researchers can use to identify deficiencies in climate models and improve their ability to predict the MJO.

Contacts

Chuck Long, Lead Scientist