During October and November 2008, some 150 scientists from 40 institutions in eight nations will take part in the Variability of the American Monsoon Systems' (VAMOS) Ocean‐Cloud‐Atmosphere‐Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS‐REx). VOCALS‐REx is an international field program designed to make observations of critical components of the coupled climate system of the southeastern Pacific that are poorly understood and poorly represented in global climate models. The region is dominated by strong coastal upwelling and extensive cold sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and home to the largest subtropical deck of stratocumulus clouds on Earth.