About YOTC

The realistic representation of tropical convection in our global atmospheric models is a long-standing grand challenge for numerical weather forecasts and global climate predictions.

Our lack of fundamental knowledge and practical capabilities in this area leaves us disadvantaged in modeling and predicting prominent phenomena of the tropical atmosphere such as the ITCZ, ENSO, TBO, monsoons and their active/break periods, the MJO, subtropical stratus decks, near-surface ocean properties, easterly waves, tropical cyclones, bulk budgets of cloud microphysical quantities, and even the diurnal cycle. Furthermore, tropical weather/climate disturbances strongly influence stratospheric-tropospheric exchange as well as the extratropics, with the later mediated via poleward migration of synoptic systems or through initiating Rossby wave trains that can involve a range of processes and time scales.

To address this the challenge of tropical convection, WCRP and WWRP/THORPEX propose a year of coordinated observing, modeling, and forecasting of organized tropical convection and its influences on predictability as a contribution to the United Nations Year of Planet Earth to complement the International Polar Year (IPY).

Related References

Moncrieff, M.W., M. Shapiro, J. Slingo, and F. Molteni, 2007: Collaborative research at the intersection of weather and climate. WMO Bulletin, 56, 204-211.

Waliser, D. E., and M. Moncrieff, 2008, The Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC) Science Plan: A joint WCRP - W WRP/THORPEX International Initiative. WMO/TD No. 1452, WCRP - 130, WWRP/THORPEX - No 9. WMO, Geneva, Switzerland.

Waliser, D. E., M. Moncrieff, D. Burrridge, A. Fink, D Gochis, B. N. Goswami, B Guan, P Harr, J Heming, H.-H. Hsu, C Jakob, M. Janiga, R. Johnson, S Jones, P. Knippertz, J Marengo, H Nguyen, M Pope, Y Serra, C Thorncroft, M Wheeler, R. Wood, and S. Yuter, 2012: The "Year" of Tropical Convection (May 2008 to April 2010): Climate Variability and Weather Highlights, Bull. Am. Met. Soc.,Vol 93, No 8, DOI:10.1175/2011BAMS3095.1.

Moncrieff, M.W., D. E. Waliser, M. J. Miller, M. A. Shapiro, G. R. Asrar, J. Caughey: 2012: Multiscale Convective Organization and the YOTC Virtual Field Campaign, Bull. Am. Met. Soc., Vol 93, No 8, DOI:10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00233.1.

Moncrieff, M.W., D. E. Waliser, and J. Caughey: 2012, Progress and Direction in Tropical Convection Research, Meeting Summary, 1st YOTC Science Symposium, 16-19 May 2011, Beijing, China., Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., DOI:10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00253.1.