An Overview of Sowmexitimrex

Interactions of southwesterly wind surges over the South China Sea and the steep terrain of Taiwan during the Meiyu period of the East Asian summer monsoon often produce severe weather and heavy rainfall. The Southwest Monsoon Experiment (SoWMEX) and the Terrain-Induced Monsoon Rainfall Experiment (TiMREX) are cooperative field programs conducted by scientists from Taiwan and the United States to study the mesoscale environment and microphysical characteristics of these weather systems. The goals of these field campaigns are to improve the understanding of orographically induced heavy rain processes and to establish the ability of quantitative precipitation forecasting in order to meet the urgent need for disaster reduction due to the heavy monsoon rainfall. Aircraft dropwindsonde observations have been conducted for the first time within monsoonal flows over the South China Sea to study the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of the flow upstream of Taiwan. NCAR SPOL radar, vertical rain profilers, and disdrometers were deployed to study the cloud microphysics and evolution of heavy rainfall systems over the coastal and mountain regions of southwestern Taiwan. In this paper, an overview of the SoWMEX/TiMREX program and its operations is presented and some preliminary results from the field observations are illustrated.