There she blows!

In the wake of the MJO there is a strong low-level flow blowing from west to east know as the "westerly wind burst" (WWB). Here on Diego Garcia it's pretty obvious that the WWB is upon us. I hung out with some windsurfers the other day who were itching to get out on the water because of how strong the wind was. Westerly wind is not ideal for windsurfing in the lagoon, but the conditions yesterday were good enough to get some decent windsurfing in anyway. However, due to a recent fishing boat accident that killed a couple people the officials haven't allowed anyone to go out fishing or windsurfing.

The upper-level wind above the WWB is usually in the opposite direction as the low-level wind. I took this time-lapse video this afternoon to try and show this. 

I was also looking at the data collected at the other DYNAMO sites and found this time-series plot from Gan, which is an island near the equator, north of Diego Garcia. 

Notice in early November that the upper-levels are relatively dry. If you blur your eyes you can see how the low-level moisture builds and becomes deeper leading up to the convective period in late November. This process is sometimes referred to as the "recharge-discharge" cycle. The buildup of moisture can be thought of as a build up of energy in the column, which is then "discharged" during the deep convective period or "wet-phase" of the MJO. You can also see the strong westerly wind in the lower-levels in late November.

I'm still a little tired from last night. Steph and I headed out to the famed "Brit Club" and played a little beer pong. We lost pretty badly twice in a row, but we didn't let the shame ruin our night.

We hear that there are some high level british officers on the island checking in on things, so the Brit Club was relatively tame, meaning none of the brits came dressed in drag or took their clothes off and drank a random mix of alcohol out of a rubber boot on top of the bar.

After some snorkeling yesterday we were walking back to the truck and came across a group of merchant marines having their weekly BBQ. They invited us to have some food and a few beers. They were really nice and interesting to talk to.

They were curious about why we were here on the island and had never heard of the MJO, so I whipped out my laptop and did my best to explain what it was.