INDOEX: Indian Ocean Experiment

Feb. 14 through March 26, 1999
Male, Republic of Maldives

The emission of anthropogenic and other aerosols into the atmosphere alters the Earth's radiative forcing directly by absorbing radiation emitted from the Earth and indirectly through the modification of cloud properties and their corresponding effects on radiation. The goal of INDOEX was to study natural and anthropogenic climate forcing by aerosols and feedbacks on regional and global climate. INDOEX field studies were conducted during the ``reverse'' monsoon season, when pristine air masses from the southern Indian Ocean and not-so-clean air from the Indian subcontinent met over the tropical Indian Ocean to provide a natural laboratory for studying aerosols.

A major component of the project was research flights made by the NCAR C-130 aircraft. Three types of flights were conducted: direct radiative forcing/closure flights, indirect radiative forcing flights, and gradient/profile flights. Additional measurements acquired during the project include cloud and chemistry measurements on board the Dutch citation, measurements from the French Mystere aircraft, balloon launches to investigate flow patterns and a wide variety of surface measurements made at the Kashidoo climate observatory. Numerical modeling, aerosol predictions, and satellite analysis are also key components of the project.

The MMM participants participated during the field campaign, analyzing cloud, aerosol, and lidar data collected on board the C-130, investigating aerosol indirect effects. They were also responsible for microphysical instrumentation on the Citation, and data collection from a microwave radiometer and sonde launches at the Kashidoo laboratory.

MMM Participants: Andrew Heymsfield (heyms1@ucar.edu); Greg McFarquhar (mcfarq@ucar.edu)

Related web sites:

(http://www-indoex.ucsd.edu)

(http://www.joss.ucar.edu/indoex)

(http://www.climserv.polytechnique.fr/indoex.indoex.html)

(http://npl-cgc.ernet.in/indoex_front.html)