A portion on the US support for AMMA is provided via the US Global 
Climate Observing System (GCOS) program based at the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center 
(http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov).  The specific support for AMMA provided via 
the US GCOS Program is a new hydrogen generator provided to the GCOS 
Upper Air Network (GUAN) site at Dakar, Senegal.  Since 2003, the top 
priority for the US GCOS Program has been to provide infrasrructure 
support for GUAN sites in developing nations; the installation of the 
new infrasturcture in Dakar not only is critical in the support of the 
AMMA project, but also leaves a legacy of continued GUAN operation well 
past the timeframe of AMMA.  In addition to the GUAN site 
infrastructure, a year's worth of radiosondes in support of the GCOS 
minimum requirement of 1 flight/day will also be provided.  For any 
questions related to the US GCOS Program please contact Howard Diamond 
at howard.diamond@noaa.gov.