The purpose of the NAME Model Assessment Project (NAMAP) is to provide some focus to high-resolution modeling activities in support of NAME.
We will not attempt to subvert or undercut modeling activities by individual investigators, the number of which is growing rapidly. To put such dynamical modeling studies on a firmer common basis, and support future process studies and sensitivity experiments, we plan to carry out controlled (or at least semi-controlled) intercomparisons of the summer seasonal cycle across southwest North America. NAMAP Phase I consists of simulations of a single warm season: 1990, when the SWAMP (SouthWest Area Monsoon Experiment) campaign was carried out. Summer precipitation was anomalously high that year (Stensrud et al., 1995, J. Climate, p. 1775-1794). We hope that NAMAP can be carried out during 2002 in time to contribute to the planning of NAME special observing systems.

NAMAP datasets will be archived at the nascent NAME web page, hosted by UCAR / Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS) in Boulder, Colorado. This webpage is still primitive but is under construction. Please register your participation in NAMAP on this webpage using the questionnaire located at URL: http://www.joss.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/name/namip/namip_quest - (No Longer Available).

After considerable discussion, we have decided that SST will be the only truly controlled boundary condition for Phase I. We will use the recently recomputed NCEP OI.v2 weekly 1-degree SST fields, described at URL: http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/cmb/sst_analysis/ and available online via anonymous ftp at:

Andrea Hahmann, who has been working with me on preparations for NAMIP, has used these data to generate a movie of the evolution of SST during the 1990 warm season. The movie can be viewed at: http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/~hahmann/movie.gif

Please use whatever land surface specification and other boundary conditions are appropriate for your model. The NAMAP questionnaire provides a means for describing how each model treats such boundary conditions, as well as outlining its dynamics, model physics and parameterizations.

The hoped-for analysis quantities are outlined in the NAMAP protocol . This list has been circulated before. We are interested in ascertaining the degree to which model climatologies have improved since the Stensrud et al. (1995) study, and whether we can ascertain aspects of model simulation discrepancy that deserve special observing attention. Feel free to forward this message to other interested parties and/or suggest additions to the NAMAP distribution list. I am happy to address any questions you might have.

Best regards,

Dave Gutzler

NAMAP coordinator

------------------------------------------------------------------

David S. Gutzler, Professor Earth & Planetary Sciences Dept.
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131-1116 USA
email: gutzler@unm.edu
phone: (505) 277-3328 or -4204
fax: (505) 277-8843
street address: 200 Yale Blvd NE
web: http://epswww.unm.edu/facstaff/gutzler.htm