A major experiment to study tropical convective cloud systems and their impacts will take place around Darwin, northern Australia, in January and February 2006. The Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE) aims to study cloud systems and their radiative, chemical, and moisture budget impacts from the initial convection through to the decaying, convectively generated cirrus. This broad aim is being addressed by a dense observational network that includes two sites equipped with cloud radar and lidar, a polarimetric )dual-polarization( weather radar and another operational Doppler radar in the area, wind profilers, infrared interferometers, flux stations, lightning interferometers, and oceanographic measurements. Also, an array of five radiosonde sites arranged in a ring with a diameter of about 250 km around Darwin will conduct soundings every three hours for a period of 24 days.