TRMM Satellite Passes over Kwajex

Hourly Kwaj Radar Data

A/C Mission Summaries

A/C Microphysical Flight Legs

DC8 Quick Look Flight Data

Daily Cloud Photo Sequence

Sounding Data

Surface Flux & Boundary Layer

Latent Heating Research

Daily Instrument Status

Geographical Info

Kwajalein Ground Validation Site

Project Documents

NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown

KWAJEX Field Campaign

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The Kwajalein Experiment (KWAJEX), held 23 July - 15 September 1999, was a field observation campaign centered on Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands and sponsored by NASA in cooperation with the U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll/Kwajalein Missile Range and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The joint U.S.-Japan Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was launched in November 1997 and uses a Ku-band radar and a multi-channel passive microwave radiometer to map precipitation in the tropics. A number of physical assumptions are made within the TRMM satellite algorithms in order to obtain rain rates from the the satellite-measured radiances. The goals of KWAJEX were focused on making observations to reduce uncertainty in these physical assumptions by gathering a coordinated data set of airborne, shipborne, and ground-based measurements within tropical open ocean precipitating clouds. This site integrates information on the specific measurements made during the KWAJEX field campaign and on the ongoing data processing and analysis.

September 5th, 1999, 23:29 UTC: The DC-8, visible by its contrail, passing over a line of precipitating clouds just to the southeast of Kwajalein.

KWAJEX Publications

Clouds observed from the roof of the Kwajalein weather station. (From Yuter et al. 2005, Figure 18b.)

Yuter, S. E., R. A. Houze, Jr., E. A. Smith, T. T.Wilheit, and E. Zipser, 2005: Physical characterization of tropical oceanic convection observed in KWAJEX. J. Appl. Meteor., 44, 385-415.

Kwajalein and neighboring atoll islands with KWAJEX sensors. (From Yuter et al. 2005, Figure 2.)

 

Cetrone, J., and R. A. Houze, Jr., 2006:
Characteristics of tropical convection over the ocean near Kwajalein. Mon. Wea. Rev., 134, 834-853.

 

 

Kwajex logoWeb page implementors: Bob Beaufait, Steve Bolen, Andy Brown, Sarah Godsey, Jerry Guynes, Ian Horton, Kyoung-Wook Jin, Jason Jordan, Min-Jeong Kim, Colleen Leary, David Marks, Kerry Moncla, Steve Nesbitt, Wendy Parker, Anita Rapp, Brett Schakel, Courtney Schumacher, Adam Sobel, Catherine Spooner, Robert Schaaf, Kevin Sullivan, Wes Adkins, Sandra Yuter.

Scientific contacts: Professor Sandra Yuter, KWAJEX Project Science Coordinator; Professor Robert A. Houze, Jr.

Web contact: Edit-Design Center, edc(at)atmos.washington.edu