Contact: Dane Konop                       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
                                          7/21/97

A team of university and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists begins a one-and-a-half month research cruise July 21 aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown to measure the three-dimensional structure of clouds and precipitation in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, a region that has a strong, but not accurately measured, influence on global weather patterns, the Commerce Department announced today.

The team will make a variety of oceanographic and meteorologic observations in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, an area of the Pacific about a third of the distance from the U.S. West Coast to Hawaii, 10 degrees north of the Equator. This time of year the trade winds collide there, sometimes producing meandering bands of violently rotating air masses that can affect atmospheric circulation patterns worldwide.

The Brown will also make a variety of measurements en route from its Charleston, S.C., home port to the mid-Pacific and on its return trip. The ship is scheduled to return to Charleston on or about Sept. 7.

Recent satellite microwave measurements indicate the Intertropical Convergence Zone is one of the rainiest regions on Earth, while satellite infrared sensors show much less precipitation. The NOAA-funded scientists intend to resolve this discrepancy the only way they can: go to the middle of the ocean in a specially equipped research ship and actually measure the rainfall. It's extremely important to resolve this discrepancy, since satellite-borne sensors are the main method of routinely gauging precipitation over the oceans, and three fourths of the Earth's atmosphere is over the ocean.

Because the Brown is both a modern floating meteorological station as well as a state-of-the-science oceanographic research platform, the ship will purposely try to cross the path of any cyclones that may form in its path, or near enough to intercept, to make measurements of a potential hurricane at sea. The ship will also routinely launch weather balloons and photograph clouds during daylight hours while underway for detailed analysis.

In a collaborative effort between the University of Miami and NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, a separate team of scientists will measure the uptake of carbon by the ocean to understand the bio- and geochemical mechanisms responsible for pressure variations in carbon dioxide in surface waters of the oceans, knowledge that is critical in coupled ocean-atmosphere models used to gauge global change.

Other scientists and crew will be on the look-out for marine mammals and sea turtles, which NOAA helps manage and conserve by accurately assessing their numbers.

Still others will test systems that will later be used to make measurements at the sea floor hydrothermal vents that are scattered across the world's oceans, spewing minerals into the seas and hosting unique communities of exotic sea life.

The NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown is a 274-foot deep ocean research ship, and the newest and one of the most advanced research ships in the world, having been commissioned July 19 in Charleston. The Brown is unique even among research ships because of a 12-foot dome that sits atop the ship's mainmast, housing the antenna of a weather surveillance radar that previously was used atop a NOAA weather tower in the New Mexico desert.

The ship also carries an instrument called a "distrometer" that precisely measures raindrop size and distribution, digital cloud cameras and cloud radars, two "profilers" that automatically and continuously measure winds and temperature vertically and horizontally far above and away from the ship, thus providing a "profile" of the atmosphere, and instruments to make a complete suite of oceanographic measurements, including many while the ship is underway.

The Brown is operated by four NOAA Corps officers and 20 wage marine crew members and commanded by NOAA Cmdr. David Peterson.

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