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VOCALS: VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study

Summary

VOCALS is an international program that is part of the CLIVAR VAMOS (Variability of the American MOnsoonS) program. The scientific issues underlying VOCALS can be broken into four interconnected categories: atmospheric, oceanic, and coupled model biases and model improvement in the SEP and other subtropical cool-ocean regimes; SEP aerosol-cloud interaction and implications for aerosol indirect effect and regional climate; SST distribution and the ocean heat budget in the SEP; and the role of South America and remote forcing from tropics and midlatitudes, on diurnal to interannual (ENSO) timescales.

Objectives:The overall goal of VOCALS is to develop and promote scientific activities leading to improved understanding, model simulations, and predictions of the southeastern Pacific (SEP) coupled ocean-atmosphere-land system, on diurnal to interannual timescales. Our two leading concerns are (1) the physical processes affecting the radiative and microphysical characteristics of the persistent stratocumulus clouds of this region, and (2) the ocean budgets of heat and other constituents, and how they determine the sea-surface temperature (SST) throughout this region.

Data access

Datasets from this project

Additional information

Field catalog
Related links

Temporal coverage

Begin Date 2008-10-01 00:00:00
End Date 2008-11-30 23:59:00

Spatial coverage


Map data from IBCSO, IBCAO, and Global Topography.

Maximum (North) Latitude: -15.00, Minimum (South) Latitude: -30.00
Minimum (West) Longitude: -90.00, Maximum (East) Longitude: -70.00