NAMMA: NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis

Summary

The African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA) project was an international collaboration aimed at improving our knowledge and understanding of the West African Monsoon and its variability.  The NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) campaign was a subset of AMMA, occurring during an AMMA special observation period in the summer of 2006.  NAMMA was a collaboration between NASA, NOAA, and various other universities and agencies in an effort to characterize the evolution and structure of African Easterly Waves (AEWs) and Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs) over western continental Africa and their associated impacts on regional water and energy budgets.  The primary research objectives of NAMMA were to examine the formation and evolution of hurricanes in the Atlantic, the Saharan Air Layer structure and composition, and the impact of aerosols on tropical cyclone genesis in the Atlantic.  NASA's DC-8 research aircraft was the primary research platform for the NAMMA campaign.