Early Results of the NASA Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX)

As reported at previous sessions of the Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference, the Office of Earth Science within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been sponsoring the Convection And Moisture Experiment (CAMEX) since 1993. Although originally designed to support satellite calibration and validation activities and to demonstrate new remote sensing technology pertinent to the global water cycle, the CAMEX research objectives have evolved to include a strong emphasis on hurricane observational studies. A hallmark of CAMEX success has been fruitful research collaborations with the Hurricane Research Division (HRD) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Hurricanes At Landfall Initiative of the United States Weather Research Program. Satellite, aircraft, and ground-based observations collected during the 1998 and 200 1 field phases of CAMEX represent a wealth of information describing the three dimensional structure of tropical cyclones. Early research results gleaned from these observations have been submitted to a special issue of the American Meteorological Society Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. An overview of these early findings and their expected significance to the operational community will be presented during this talk.