Atmospheric boundary layer characteristics during the BOBMEX-Pilot experiment

The atmospheric boundary layer characteristics observed during the BOBMEX-P ilot experiment are reported. Surface meteorological data were acquired con tinuously through an automatic weather monitoring system and manually every three hours. High resolution radiosondes were launched to obtain the verti cal thermal structure of the atmosphere. The study area was convectively ac tive, the SSTs were high, surface air was warm and moist, and the surface a ir moist static energy was among the highest observed over the tropical oce ans. The mean sea air temperature difference was about 1.25 degrees C and t he sea skin temperature was cooler than bucket SST by 0.5 degrees C. The at mospheric mixed layer was shallow, fluctuated in response to synoptic condi tions from 100 m to 900 m with a mean around 500 m.