CHOCO-JEX: A Research Experiment Focused on the Chocó Low-Level Jet over the Far Eastern Pacific and Western Colombia

Abstract

Abstract The ChocoJet Experiment (CHOCO-JEX) is an interinstitutional research program developed by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the General Maritime Directorate of the Ministry of National Defense of Colombia, the Colombian Air Force, and the Desert Research Institute. The main goal of CHOCO-JEX is to characterize the vertical structure of the low-level Chocó jet (ChocoJet) through observations and modeling. Thus, four 7-day intensive observation periods (IOPs) took place during different seasons in 2016, two over land and two over the far eastern Pacific off the coast of Colombia, including the deployment of upper-air soundings four times per day to monitor the predominant diurnal cycle and the synoptic and seasonal variability. Preliminary results show deeper westerly moisture flow and a stronger diurnal cycle over land than over ocean. IOP4 provides the first observational evidence of the southwesterly ChocoJet with mean winds of 5 m s –1 . Diurnal cycles of zonal wind are coherent with mountain–valley and sea–land breezes at low levels and the easterly flow is predominant at midlevels. Potential temperature anomalies appear to be related to gravity waves that modulate the diurnal cycle of precipitation in the region.