Tropical Atlantic Field Experiments from FSU (1968) to GATE (1974): The Legacy of Noel LaSeurby

It is now 50 years since the Meteorology Department at Florida State University carried out a remarkable field program, based on Barbados in July-August 1968, under the leadership of Profs. Michael Garstang and Noel LaSeur. This followed two cruises of the Woods Hole research ship Crawford, and was the predecessor of BOMEX (1969). Pioneered by Garstang, the high-quality measurements during the 1968 experiment made it possible to relate processes at the sea-air interface, and through the boundary layer, to cumulus convection to mesoscale and synoptic scale disturbances over tropical oceans. While further details will be presented in a forthcoming BAMS article, this talk recognizes the legacy of Noel LaSeur, whose vision for how to design a field experiment over tropical oceans that would capture the essential (and interacting) processes on the above scales of motion led directly to the monumental Global Atmospheric Research Program's Atlantic Tropical Experiment (1974, with 40 ships and 13 aircraft). Many of today's young scientists are unaware of GATE, or several other tropical field programs of that era, and the innovative ideas that were outlined by Noel LaSeur in a series of planning meetings that led to the need for, and national and international commitments that made GATE possible. It is this history, and Noel LaSeur's legacy, that is the focus of this talk.