NAMMA

The major research topics of the NAMMA campaign examined the formation and evolution of tropical hurricanes in the eastern and central Atlantic and their impact on the U.S. east coast, and the composition and structure of the Saharan Air Layer, and whether aerosols affect cloud precipitation and influence cyclone development. NASA's DC-8 medium altitude research aircraft served as the primary research tool for the NAMMA investigations. The aircraft was outfitted with in situ and remote atmospheric research instrumentation, flying a complement of 40 crew and scientists conducting 8-hour missions every 2-3 days over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The DC-8 was flown in coordination with NASA’s NPOL and TOGA research weather radars, balloon soundings, and the SMART-COMMIT mobile research ground stations, measuring chemical, optical, microphysical, and radiative properties of the atmosphere. 

Scientists from NASA centers including Ames Research Center, Dryden Flight Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Langley Research Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and multiple universities contributed to the success of the NAMMA mission. Additionally, the NOAA Hurricane Research Division collaborated with NASA through a complimentary Intensity Forecasting Experiment (IFEX 2006) in the Caribbean Sea. NOAA tracked and continued the study of individual AEWs and tropical storms downwind of the NAMMA area as they moved westward across the Atlantic Ocean.

Research planned under the auspices of this campaign was in collaboration with the international African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA) experiment, conducted during the Special Observation Period (SOP-3) in the summer of 2006. The NASA contribution of this larger campaign focused on the downstream or oceanic evolution of precipitating convective systems, largely as this evolution pertained to tropical cyclogenesis.