VOCALS-UK: An overview of UK science from the VOCALS campaign.

This paper will highlight a variety of process studies, observationally led studies and modelling studies, both completed and in progress, conducted by groups in the United Kingdom, working in collaboration with international partners on the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx). The VOCALS campaign, conducted from Arica, Chile, between October and November, 2008, aims to better understand the nature and variability of interactions between the ocean, atmosphere and steep tomography, as well as local and long-range transport of pollutants and aerosol, in the context of their role in controlling the climate of the South East Pacific – an important region in terms of the global energy budget and which is currently poorly characterised in global climate models. Specific highlights will include a statistical representation of the SEP marine boundary layer during VOCALS-Rex to inform future modelling; an analysis of the synoptic and large-scale dynamical influences on cloud in the SEP; results from improved Met Office Unified Model forecast runs which examine aerosol-cloud interactions with a comparison to results from WRF-CHEM; and large eddy modelling of simulated gravity waves and their potential to induce open cellular convection (create pockets of open cells). In addition, early results from a number of further studies will be presented.