The OTREC (Organization of Tropical East Pacific Convection) field campaign is an international field campaign funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that aims to study convection in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and southwest Caribbean.
Learn about the science of OTREC with lead Principle Investigators Željka Fuchs and David Raymond from New Mexico Tech.
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Costa Rica is centrally located between the Pacific Ocean and southwestern Caribbean, making it an ideal location to traverse by plane to examine convection over the tropics, which is poorly understood. This region in the tropics is characterized by a strong sea surface temperature gradient with the coldest temperatures on the equator. Studying convection and figuring out the vertical mass flux profiles of convection in this region will help scientists understand the physics that goes into the forecasting models of global weather and climate models.
Data for this project will be collected in the air using the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream-V High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (GV HIAPER) aircraft. Additionally, data will be collected from AVAPS dropsondes, radiosondes, GPS PW stations, and NCAR's downward-pointing W-band radar (the HIAPER Cloud Radar - HCR). Data collection spans Costa Rica, Colombia, and over the East Pacific Ocean.
