1075 AUGUST 2004 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | W hile the observational study of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) has been active since the 1940s (e.g., Newton 1950 and ref- erences within), until the Bow Echo and Mesoscale Convective Vortex Experiment (BAMEX) there were no studies designed to sample multiscale aspects of these systems throughout the majority of their life cycles. Previous field studies such as the Oklahoma- Kansas Preliminary Regional Experiment for Stormscale Operational and Research Meteorology (STORM)-Central (PRE-STORM) (Cunning 1986) were geographically fixed by the ground-based instru- ment networks employed. The unique observing strategy of BAMEX relied on the deployment of highly mobile observing systems, both airborne and ground based, supported by the enhanced operational THE BOW ECHO AND MCV EXPERIMENT Observations and Opportunities BY CHRISTOPHER DAVIS, NOLAN ATKINS, DIANA BARTELS, LANCE BOSART, MICHAEL CONIGLIO, GEORGE BRYAN, WILLIAM COTTON, DAVID DOWELL, BRIAN JEWETT, ROBERT JOHNS,* DAVID JORGENSEN, JASON KNIEVEL, KEVIN KNUPP, WEN-CHAU LEE, GREGORY MCFARQUHAR, JAMES MOORE, RON PRZYBYLINSKI, ROBERT RAUBER, BRADLEY SMULL, ROBERT TRAPP, STANLEY TRIER, ROGER WAKIMOTO, MORRIS WEISMAN, AND CONRAD ZIEGLER The field campaign, involving multiple aircraft and ground-based instruments, documented numerous long-lived mesoscale convective systems, many producing strong surface winds and exhibiting mesoscale rotation. AFFILIATIONS: DAVIS, BRYAN, DOWELL, KNIEVEL, BARTELS, LEE, TRIER, AND WEISMAN—National Center for Atmospheric Research, + Boulder, Colorado; ATKINS—Lyndon State College, Lyndon, Vermont; BARTELS—NOAA/Forecast Systems Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado; BOSART—The University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York; CONIGLIO—University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma; COTTON—Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado; JEWETT, MCFARQUHAR, AND RAUBER—University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, Illinois; JOHNS—Storm Prediction Center, Norman, Oklahoma; JORGENSEN AND ZIEGLER— National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, Oklahoma; KNUPP— University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama; MOORE— Joint Office of Science Support, UCAR, Boulder, Colorado; PRZYBLINSKI—National Weather Service Forecast Office, St. Louis, Missouri; SMULL—NSSL, and University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; TRAPP—Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana; WAKIMOTO—University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California *Retired + The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Christopher A. Davis, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 E-mail: cdavis@ucar.edu DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-85-8-1075 In final form 25 May 2004 ©2004 American Meteorological Society