Weather Forecasting Group

• Keenan, T., R. Carbone, S. Rutledge, J. Wilson, G. Holland and P. May. 1996: The Maritime Continent Thunderstorm Experiment (MCTEX): Overview and Initial Results., Proceedings 7th Conference on Mesoscale Processes, Reading UK, 9-13 September 1996

10A.3

THE MARITIME CONTINENT THUNDERSTORM EXPERIMENT (MCTEX): OVERVIEW AND INITIAL RESULTS

*T. Keenan¹, R. Carbone², S. Rutledge³, J. Wilson², G. Holland¹, P. May¹

¹. Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre (BMRC)

². National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

³. Colorado State University (CSU)

1. Introduction

Over the years numerous studies of oceanic convection in the tropics have been undertaken e.g. the Equatorial Mesoscale Experiment (Webster and Houze, 1991) and the Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere Couple Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (Webster and Lucas, 1992). In addition other experiments described by Miller and Betts (1977) and Rutledge et al. (1992) have examined convective systems located over continental location. However, apart from the International Winter Monsoon Experiment study by Houze et al. (1981) observations of island based convection in the atmospheric "boiler box" of the Maritime Continent are lacking.

MCTEX was aimed at investigating the lifecycle of mesoscale systems O(100 km) occurring over such tropical islands where the forcing is thought to be dominated by local coastal and diurnal effects. The basic objective of MCTEX was "To improve knowledge of the dynamics and interaction of the physical processes involved in the organisation and lifecycle of tropical island convection over the Maritime Continent and the role of this convection in the atmospheric energy and moisture balance." Component objectives are discussed in detail by Keenan et al. (1994).

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