T-PARC - THORPEX Pacific Asian Regional Campaign

What is T-PARC?

T-PARC is a two-phase multi-national field experiment. The first and primary phase (Summer T-PARC) ran from August to October 2008. The second phase (Winter T-PARC) runs from mid January through to March 2009. In both phases the geographical focal point is the North Pacific and surrounding countries. During Summer T-PARC the main meteorological focus was tropical cyclones and extra-tropical transition - most activity therefore was in the western North Pacific region. In Winter T-PARC downstream impacts over N America are more relevant - activity then covers the whole of the North Pacific region, but with less emphasis on the tropics.

A brief summary of T-PARC is given at the foot of this page.

T-PARC links for participants

Winter T-PARC (Jan/Feb/Mar 2009):

For more information, and the real-time field catalog, hosted from NCEP, go here.

Data from ECMWF:

1. A 'data targetting system' (DTS). (See also the user guide)
2. Real time ECMWF forecast products for the north Pacific
3. Real time 'cyclone database' products from the ECMWF ensemble and the Met Office MOGREPS (global) ensemble - these describe the handling, in model ensembles, of synoptic-scale cyclonic features in both the tropics and extratropics; software was developed over a number of years at the Met Office, most recently as part of the THORPEX project. (HELP)

Summer T-PARC (Aug/Sep/Oct 2008):

24 Oct 2008: As the summer phase of T-PARC has now ended product updating has been suspended. Old data (such as DTS cases) will remain accessible for the time being.

Much more information can be found here. For the real-time field catalog archive, hosted from the Operations Centre in Monterey, go here.

Data from ECMWF:

4. A 'data targetting system' (DTS). (See also the user guide)
5. Real time ECMWF forecast products for the north Pacific. (link disabled)
6. Real-time ECMWF forecasts pertaining to current tropical cyclones.
7. Real time 'cyclone database' products from the ECMWF and Met Office MOGREPS (global) ensembles. ECMWF data is for 18 Aug to 20 Oct 2008, MOGREPS for 1 Aug to 20 Oct 2008. (HELP)

Brief overview of T-PARC aims

T-PARC takes extra observations from a wide variety of platforms, including aircraft with dropsonde and radar facilities, and driftsondes. During Summer T-PARC, the main observations were taken in areas related to the life-cycle of evolving tropical cyclones; from the pre-genesis phase, through intensification, and on to and beyond any extra-tropical transition (should this occur). Key motives included, but were not limited to:

• Better understanding of genesis mechanisms for tropical cyclones, and model handling thereof
• Improved prediction of tropical cyclone intensification and tracks
• Evaluation of the impact of targetted observations on tropical cyclone-related predictability, in both the tropics and extratropics
• Evaluation of the relative merits of different methods of computing sensitive areas for observation targetting
• Evaluation of the utility of relatively new observational platforms, such as airborne lidar
• Better understanding of the extratropical transition process, and downstream impacts, with a view to improving model representation thereof

There were also important synergies with other experimental campaigns being held in and around the Western North Pacific basin during 2008. During 'Winter T-PARC' emphasis shifts towards extratropical predictability issues, and related interactions with the tropics.

The ultimate aim of T-PARC is: 'to increase understanding of the mechanisms that will lead to improved predictive skill of high-impact weather events'.