BOMEX

BOMEX
Name	BOMEX
Date	1969
Location	Atlantic Ocean
Participants	United Kingdom, United States, Canada
Type	Scientific field experiment
Outcome	Enhanced understanding of tropical boundary layers

BOMEX

BOMEX was a 1969 multinational field experiment in the tropical Atlantic that investigated the structure and dynamics of the marine trade-wind boundary layer. Conducted by scientists from institutions such as the Met Office, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the project sought to improve tropical convective parameterizations used in models developed at organizations like the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the United States National Weather Service. The experiment influenced work at research centers including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Background

BOMEX emerged from earlier observational campaigns motivated by advances following the Project STORMFURY era and discussions at meetings of the World Meteorological Organization. Tropical meteorology, as advanced by researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory and the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, required concentrated observations to test theories from numerical groups such as those at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (China) and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. The selection of a trade-wind region in the eastern Atlantic Ocean linked BOMEX to synoptic features studied in parallel by expeditions near the Cape Verde Islands and investigations connected to the Monsoon Experiment.

Objectives

The primary objectives were to characterize the vertical structure of the marine boundary layer, quantify surface fluxes of heat and moisture, and document mesoscale organization of shallow convection relevant to parameterizations in models at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Secondary aims included testing airborne and shipboard instrumentation from groups at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and validating remote-sensing interpretations used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Outreach and collaboration objectives engaged scientists from the University of Reading, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Miami.

Experimental Design and Methods

BOMEX employed coordinated ship-based and aircraft operations patterned after methodologies developed during projects like GATE and COST. The design included repeated vertical profilers from research aircraft operated by the Royal Aircraft Establishment and platforms similar to those used by the Lockheed Corporation in previous campaigns. Lagrangian and Eulerian sampling strategies were implemented with reference to theoretical frameworks advanced by groups at the Princeton University and the University of Washington. Synoptic context was provided through radiosonde networks maintained by the United Kingdom Met Office and the United States Navy.

Instrumentation and Data Collection

Instrumentation combined oceanographic sensors from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution with atmospheric probes fielded by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique. Airborne payloads measured temperature, humidity, and wind shear using sensors developed at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and data systems influenced by efforts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Shipboard measurements recorded sea-surface temperature and fluxes using eddy-covariance techniques similar to those validated by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and institutions such as the University of Southampton. Radiosondes and dropsondes provided profiling comparable to deployments in the TOGA program, while surface synoptic stations coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization supplied contextual observations.

Key Findings and Impact

BOMEX yielded several influential results: refined estimates of turbulent fluxes over the tropical ocean that informed parameterizations adopted by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts; improved descriptions of trade-wind cumulus populations that guided convection schemes used at the National Weather Service; and characterization of mesoscale organization that influenced theoretical work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge. The dataset supported model intercomparisons later undertaken by research consortia including the International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme and fed into satellite validation efforts by the European Space Agency and NASA missions benefiting programs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Subsequent Research and Legacy

BOMEX catalyzed follow-on experiments and long-term programs such as studies linked to the Global Atmospheric Research Program and campaigns preceding the TOGA COARE initiative. Its methodologies and findings were incorporated into curricula and training at the University of Reading and the Imperial College London, and its legacy persists in operational model development at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. Archival BOMEX data continue to be referenced in synthesis efforts by international teams at the International Center for Theoretical Physics and in review articles published by scholars affiliated with the Royal Meteorological Society.

Category:Field experiments in meteorology Category:Tropical meteorology