Preliminary Results from the Air Mass Transformation Experiment (AMTEX)

Abstract

The field phases of AMTEX, a GARP subprogram on air-sea interaction implemented by Japan, were conducted over the East China Sea in the environs of Okinawa, Japan, during the last two weeks of February in 1974 and 1975. Investigators from Australia, Canada, and the United States also participated in this experiment. The weather was generally very favorable for this study of air mass transformation processes in 1975 because of an extensive cold air outbreak during most of the experimental period. A basic synoptic data set was obtained from 6 h soundings from an array of aerological stations centered at Okinawa. In addition, satellite, hourly surface and surface marine, oceanographic, boundary layer, radiation, radar, cloud physics, and aircraft data were obtained and have been or will be available in published data reports or on magnetic tape.Preliminary results from 1974 and 1975 reported at the Fourth AMTEX Study Conference and joint United States–Japan Cooperative Science Program Seminar, “Air Mass Transformation Processes over the Kuroshio in Winter,” held in Tokyo, 26–30 September 1975, are presented and discussed.