Scientists probe Indian Ocean - DYNAMO project - Multimedia Gallery

Sep 21, 2011 - by Staff

Multimedia Gallery

An international team of researchers begins gathering in the Indian Ocean in October 2011 to study an atmospheric pattern that affects weather worldwide. The six-month field campaign, known as DYNAMO (Dynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation), will help improve long-range weather forecasts and seasonal outlooks, and enable scientists to further refine computer models of global climate. The MJO was first recognized as an important weather-maker pattern by NCAR scientists Roland Madden and Paul Julian in the 1970s.

All images with the UCAR copyright must be credited to UCAR and may be reproduced in news stories about NCAR & UCAR activities. High-resolution of the animation is available; please send a request to Carlye Calvin.

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Tropical weather maker in motion. The Madden-Julian Oscillation is a cyclical disturbance of the tropical atmosphere with pulses that typically originate in the Indian Ocean every 30 to 60 days and travel eastward. During each pulse of the MJO, regional westerly winds replace easterly trade winds near the surface, and showers and thunderstorms increase, particularly over regions of high sea surface temperatures in the Indian and western Pacific oceans.

(©UCAR. Animation by Lex Ivey, based on data from Adrian Matthews. This video is freely available for media use. For more information, see Media & nonprofit use.*)

Still images
DYNAMO project logo (Dynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation)	NCAR's S-Pol radar sits atop its portable shipping containers, with towering cumulus in the background, on location in the Maldives during the DYNAMO project. (©UCAR, photo by Michael Dixon, NCAR. This image is freely available for media use. For more information, see Media & nonprofit use.*)	NCAR's S-Pol radar against brightly lit cumulus clouds, on location in the Maldives during the DYNAMO project. (©UCAR, photo by Michael Dixon, NCAR. This image is freely available for media use. For more information, see Media & nonprofit use.*)
S-Pol Radar (©UCAR, photo by Carlye Calvin. This image is freely available for media use. For more information, see Media & nonprofit use.*)	The Roger Revelle Research Vessel (Photo courtesy Scripps Institution of Oceanography.)	The Falcon 20. (Photo courtesy SAFIRE Airborne Environment Research Service.)
The NOAA P3. (Photo courtesy NOAA.)	The Oceanographic Research Vessel MIRAI (Photo courtesy Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology - JAMSTEC.)	Texas A&M SMART-Radar, (©UCAR, photo by Carlye Calvin. This image is freely available for media use. For more information, see Media & nonprofit use.*)