This research will center on integrating certain data from upper tropospheric aircraft, primarily the NASA DC-8, into the composite data set for the intensive observing array for TOGA- COARE (Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere; Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment). There is a great need for quantitative data on particle size distribution, temperature, moisture and wind data from the interior of the tropical cloud systems in COARE. The contribution of these data will be maximized by close coordination with the flight plans of the other aircraft, which will be obtaining simultaneous Doppler radar data. The DC-8 will be used first for quantitative description of the upper tropospheric characteristics of the COARE cloud clusters. These data sets will be used in combination with data from the COARE ship away and from the other aircraft to test the hypothesis that small differences in convective updraft strength may be associated with profoundly different vertical profiles of hydrometeor content and particle size distribution. If true, latent heating and radiative heating profiles would be greatly affected. It will be important to place the findings in the context of the type of mesoscale convective system, and stage of life cycle. The results of this work will help provide "ground truth" for cloud models and radiative transfer models. The research will also take advantage of the unprecedented opportunity presented by the active and passive microwave sensors on the DC-8 operating within the intensive array of observations from the other platforms. The research includes interpreting the passive microwave radiometer data from the DC-8 in terms of rain rate and providing these rainfall estimates to the other COARE investigators. This research is important because it is one of the TOGA COARE studies of convective scale physical processes that can be linked to larger scales that impact variability in an especially climate sensitive region of the world, the western Pacific Ocean, the field site of TOGA COARE.
