An Overview of the Bow Echo and MCV Experiment (BAMEX)

BAMEX is a study using highly mobile platforms to examine the life cycles of mesoscale convective systems. It represents a combination of two related programs to investigate (a) bow echoes, principally those which produce damaging surface winds and last several hours and (b) larger convective systems which produce long lived mesoscale convective vortices (MCVs). The primary scientific goal in studying bow echoes is to determine mechanisms of severe wind production, and precursors evident in observations. For MCVs the goals are to verify the formation mechanism of MCVs and to determine how MCVs assist convection initiation and orgainization.

The field phase of BAMEX utilized three aircraft, two equipped with dual Doppler radar capability, the third equipped with dropsondes, to map the mesoscale evolution of long-lived MCSs including the development of mesoscale vortices and rear-inflow jets. Dropsondes were deployed to document environmental structure, thermodynamic structure of the stratiform region (where rear-inflow jets and MCVs reside) and to capture the structure of mature MCVs in the absence of convection. In addition, a mobile array of ground-based instruments sampled the thermodynamic and kinematic properties of the boundary layer and lower troposphere. A summary of the deployment strategy, cases sampled and data obtained will be presented, along with some preliminary results.