The TOGA Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) is designed to address the significant challenges in predicting the variability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system on time scales of months to years. The primary focus is on understanding the physics that maintains and perturbs the western Pacific warm pool, a region of the warmest sea surface temperatures and the largest annual precipitation and latent heat release. Despite substantial progress in the Tropical Ocean–Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program, there are still major hurdles, particularly in simulating the warm pool accurately. TOGA COARE aims to describe and understand the principal processes responsible for the coupling of the ocean and atmosphere in the western Pacific warm-pool system, the atmospheric processes that organize convection in this region, the oceanic response to combined buoyancy and wind-stress forcing, and the multiple-scale interactions that extend the influence of the warm-pool system to other regions. The experimental design includes an intensive observation period (IOP) from November 1992 to February 1993 in the western Pacific region, with a focus on an intensive flux array (IFA) centered at 2°S and 156°E. The high-quality dataset from this IOP will be used to improve air-sea interaction and boundary-layer parameterizations in models and to validate coupled models. The scientific basis for TOGA COARE is rooted in the understanding of the structure of the atmosphere over the warm pool, the convective variability, atmospheric heating profiles, convection and its organization, and the impact of atmospheric variability on the ocean. The western Pacific warm pool is a critical region for understanding global climate change, ENSO phenomena, and intraseasonal variability due to its strong convection and significant heat and moisture fluxes. The experimental design and scientific objectives are detailed to address these challenges and improve our understanding of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system.The TOGA Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) is designed to address the significant challenges in predicting the variability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system on time scales of months to years. The primary focus is on understanding the physics that maintains and perturbs the western Pacific warm pool, a region of the warmest sea surface temperatures and the largest annual precipitation and latent heat release. Despite substantial progress in the Tropical Ocean–Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program, there are still major hurdles, particularly in simulating the warm pool accurately. TOGA COARE aims to describe and understand the principal processes responsible for the coupling of the ocean and atmosphere in the western Pacific warm-pool system, the atmospheric processes that organize convection in this region, the oceanic response to combined buoyancy and wind-stress forcing, and the multiple-scale interactions that extend the influence of the warm-pool system to other regions. The experimental design includes an intensive observation period (IOP) from November 1992 to February 1993 in the western Pacific region, with a focus on an intensive flux array (IFA) centered at 2°S and 156°E. The high-quality dataset from this IOP will be used to improve air-sea interaction and boundary-layer parameterizations in models and to validate coupled models. The scientific basis for TOGA COARE is rooted in the understanding of the structure of the atmosphere over the warm pool, the convective variability, atmospheric heating profiles, convection and its organization, and the impact of atmospheric variability on the ocean. The western Pacific warm pool is a critical region for understanding global climate change, ENSO phenomena, and intraseasonal variability due to its strong convection and significant heat and moisture fluxes. The experimental design and scientific objectives are detailed to address these challenges and improve our understanding of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system.