Personal Perspectives on GATE: Prelude, Objectives, Challenges, Legacy

GATE (1974) was a first observational jewel in the crown of GARP. It was a breakthrough in tropical observations, conducted by a network of collaborating platforms and nations, and aimed at understanding the multi scale interactions of convective and larger wind systems. It left a legacy of related experiments for me, such as MONEX (1979) and TOGA COARE (1992-93).

GATE was a logical step in the rapid development of the science of weather systems in the tropics, following recent theoretical ideas of equatorial wave circulations and moist convective feedbacks. In 1972, NCAR appointed me to conduct a two-month colloquium on “Dynamics of theTropical Troposphere” involving dozens of US researchers and sponsored graduate students who later became active in GATE and its successor MONEX (1979). An adjunct “Workshop on Cumulus Parameterization” was held, involving a week of talks and intense interactions between leading thinkers.

My participation in the field phase of GATE was as Mission Scientist on the NASA ship Vanguard, with a technical crew of 150. The ship’s tracking radar produced accurate, high-resolution winds. Planned cross-sections moving across the Equatorwere scrapped after problems with real-time conventional US winds were found. Instead, the ship produced uniquely excellent data which allowed boundary layer details, Saharan dust outbreaks, and stratospheric jets to be studied.