Interaction of convective organisation with monsoon precipitation, atmosphere, surface and sea: the 2016 INCOMPASS field campaign in India

Turner, A.G.; Bhat, G.S.; Martin, G.M.; Parker, D.J.; Taylor, C.M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0120-3198; Mitra, A.K.; Tripathi, S.N.; Milton, S.; Rajagopal, E.N.; Evans, J.G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4194-1416; Morrison, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1847-3127; Pattnaik, S.; Sekhar, M.; Bhattacharya, B.K.; Madan, R.; Govindankutty, Mrudula; Fletcher, J.K.; Willetts, P.D.; Menon, A.; Marsham, J.H.; Hunt, K.M.R.; Chakraborty, T.; George, G.; Krishnan, M.; Sarangi, C.; Belusic, D.; Garcia‐Carreras, L.; Brooks, M.; Webster, S.; Brooke, J.K.; Fox, C.; Harlow, R.C.; Langridge, J.M.; Jayakumar, A.; Böing, S.J.; Halliday, O.; Bowles, J.; Kent, J.; O'Sullivan, D.; Wilson, A.; Woods, C.; Rogers, S.; Smout‐Day, R.; Tiddeman, D.; Desai, D.; Nigam, R.; Paleri, S.; Sattar, A.; Smith, M.; Anderson, D.; Bauguitte, S.; Carling, R.; Chan, C.; Devereau, S.; Gratton, G.; MacLeod, D.; Nott, G.; Pickering, M.; Price, H.; Rastall, S.; Reed, C.; Trembath, J.; Woolley, A.; Volonté, A.; New, B.. 2020 Interaction of convective organisation with monsoon precipitation, atmosphere, surface and sea: the 2016 INCOMPASS field campaign in India. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 146 (731). 2828-2852. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3633

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.3633

Abstract/Summary

The INCOMPASS field campaign combines airborne and ground measurements of the 2016 Indian monsoon, towards the ultimate goal of better predicting monsoon rainfall. The monsoon supplies the majority of water in South Asia, but forecasting from days to the season ahead is limited by large, rapidly developing errors in model parametrizations. The lack of detailed observations prevents thorough understanding of the monsoon circulation and its interaction with the land surface: a process governed by boundary‐layer and convective‐cloud dynamics. INCOMPASS used the UK Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe‐146 aircraft for the first project of this scale in India, to accrue almost 100 h of observations in June and July 2016. Flights from Lucknow in the northern plains sampled the dramatic contrast in surface and boundary‐layer structures between dry desert air in the west and the humid environment over the northern Bay of Bengal. These flights were repeated in pre‐monsoon and monsoon conditions. Flights from a second base at Bengaluru in southern India measured atmospheric contrasts from the Arabian Sea, over the Western Ghats mountains, to the rain shadow of southeast India and the south Bay of Bengal. Flight planning was aided by forecasts from bespoke 4 km convection‐permitting limited‐area models at the Met Office and India's NCMRWF. On the ground, INCOMPASS installed eddy‐covariance flux towers on a range of surface types, to provide detailed measurements of surface fluxes and their modulation by diurnal and seasonal cycles. These data will be used to better quantify the impacts of the atmosphere on the land surface, and vice versa. INCOMPASS also installed ground instrumentation supersites at Kanpur and Bhubaneswar. Here we motivate and describe the INCOMPASS field campaign. We use examples from two flights to illustrate contrasts in atmospheric structure, in particular the retreating mid‐level dry intrusion during the monsoon onset.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3633
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Hydro-climate Risks (Science Area 2017-) Unaffiliated
ISSN:	0035-9009
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
Additional Keywords:	field campaign, INCOMPASS, Indian monsoon, observations, surface fluxes, systematic model bias, tropical convection
NORA Subject Terms:	Meteorology and Climatology
Date made live:	02 Sep 2019 13:14 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/524968

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3633

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Hydro-climate Risks (Science Area 2017-)
Unaffiliated

ISSN:

0035-9009

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.

Additional Keywords:

field campaign, INCOMPASS, Indian monsoon, observations, surface fluxes, systematic model bias, tropical convection