Meteorological Research Plan at JAMSTEC using Shipboard Doppler Radar
Kunio Yoneyama
Japan Marine Science and Technology Center; Yokosuka
Introduction
Air-sea interaction is one of the most important factors to be understood in order to better understand atmospheric and oceanographic phenomena such as ENSO(El Nino/ Southern Oscillation). The warm water pool region is the most active areas of the air-sea interaction, where the deep clouds develop and bring huge amount precipitation onto the ocean. Besides, inspite of the necessity of the datasets of precipitat-ion over the ocean, the data were limited within near the islands because of the difficulty of the observation on the sea.
We at JAMSTEC will have a new research vessel MIRAI and have decided to mount the Doppler radar to investigate the precipitation mechanism over the ocean. Our TRITON buoys are also equipped with many meteorological and oceanographical sensors. The combination of their datasets are expected to bring us much of new knowledge.
Here, we will briefly mention about the characteristics of the shipboard Doppler radar and some targets to be observed.
Characteristics
The characteristics of the R/V MIRAI's Doppler radar are summarized as follows.
