i
Reverse engineering the tropical precipitation-buoyancy relationship
-
2018
Source: J. Atmos. Sci. (2018) 75(5): 1587-1608
[PDF-2.73 MB]
Details:
-
Journal Title:Journal of Atmospheric Sciences
-
Personal Author:
-
NOAA Program & Office:
-
Description:The tropical precipitation–moisture relationship, characterized by rapid increases in precipitation for modest increases in moisture, is conceptually recast in a framework relevant to plume buoyancy and conditional instability in the tropics. The working hypothesis in this framework links the rapid onset of precipitation to integrated buoyancy in the lower troposphere. An analytical expression that relates the buoyancy of an entraining plume to the vertical thermodynamic structure is derived. The natural variables in this framework are saturation and subsaturation equivalent potential temperatures, which capture the leading-order temperature and moisture variations, respectively. The use of layer averages simplifies the analytical and subsequent numerical treatment. Three distinct layers, the boundary layer, the lower free troposphere, and the midtroposphere, adequately capture the vertical variations in the thermodynamic structure. The influence of each environmental layer on the plume is assumed to occur via lateral entrainment, corresponding to an assumed mass-flux profile. The fractional contribution of each layer to the midlevel plume buoyancy (i.e., the layer weight) is estimated from TRMM 3B42 precipitation and ERA-Interim thermodynamic profiles. The layer weights are used to “reverse engineer” a deep-inflow mass-flux profile that is nominally descriptive of the tropical atmosphere through the onset of deep convection. The layer weights—which are nearly the same for each of the layers—constitute an environmental influence function and are also used to compute a free-tropospheric integrated buoyancy measure. This measure is shown to be an effective predictor of onset in conditionally averaged precipitation across the global tropics—over both land and ocean.
-
Keywords:
-
Source:J. Atmos. Sci. (2018) 75(5): 1587-1608
-
Document Type:
-
Funding:
-
Place as Subject:
-
Rights Information:Other
-
Compliance:Submitted
-
Main Document Checksum:urn:sha256:f5cfa4716fbcb1e70ed8a99c424547c85a0d3e068d3d60670b34302ca458e858
-
File Type:
Supporting Files
-
No Additional Files
More +
Related Documents
-
2018 | JGR Atmospheres 122(10), 5188-5204, 2018Description:Eastward propagating Madden‐Julian oscillation (MJO) events that develop in the Indian Ocean from November to April are separated into events whose ...Personal Author:Adames, Ángel F. ;Ming, Yi2018 | J. Atmos. Sci. (2018) 75(6): 2083–2106Description:South Asian monsoon low pressure systems, referred to as synoptic-scale monsoonal disturbances (SMDs), are convectively coupled cyclonic disturbances ...Personal Author:Dong, Bo ;Dai, Aiguo...2018 | J. Clim. (2018) 31(18): 7337–7361Description:Remote influences of ENSO are known to vary with different phases of the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO). Here, observational and reanalysis da...Personal Author:Henderson, Stephanie A. ;Maloney, Eric D.2018 | J. Clim. (2018) 31(13): 5293–5318Description:Wintertime high-latitude blocking is associated with persistent changes in temperature and precipitation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. Studies...Personal Author:Kuo, Yi-Hung ;Schiro, Kathleen A....2018 | J. Atmos. Sci. (2018) 75(5): 1553–1570Description:Convective transition statistics, which describe the relation between column-integrated water vapor (CWV) and precipitation, are compiled over tropica...Personal Author:Yi, Daling Li ;Gan, Bolan...2018 | J. Clim. (2018) 31(6): 2487–2509Description:Based on the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) product and 37 models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) database, t...Personal Author:Chen, Han-Ching ;Sui, Chung-Hsiung...2018 | J. Clim. (2018) 31(14): 5461–5483Description:This study investigates the sudden reversal of anomalous zonal equatorial transport above thermocline at the peak phase of ENSO. The oceanic processes...Changes in atmospheric blocking circulations linked with winter arctic warming: a new perspectiveCitePersonal Author:Luo, Dehai ;Chen, Xiaodan...2018 | J. Clim. (2018) 31(18): 7661–7678Description:Winter atmospheric blocking circulations such as Ural blocking (UB) have been recognized to play an important role in recent winter Eurasian cooling. ...Moisture and moist static energy budgets of South Asian monsoon low pressure systems in GFDL AM4.0CitePersonal Author:Adames, Ángel F. ;Ming, Yi2018 | J. Atmos. Sci. (2018) 75(6): 2107–2123Description:The mechanisms that lead to the propagation of anomalous moisture and moist static energy (MSE) in monsoon low and high pressure systems, collectively...Contributions of internal variability and external forcing to the recent Pacific decadal variationsCite2018 | Geophysical Research Letters 45(14): 7084-7092, 2018Description:There is substantial uncertainty in the relative contributions of internal variability and external forcing to the recent Pacific decadal variability,...Strong Relations Between ENSO and the Arctic Oscillation in the North American Multi-Model EnsembleCite2017 | Geophysical Research Letters 44(22): 11654-11662, 2017Description:Arctic Oscillation (AO) variability impacts climate anomalies over the middle to high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Recently, state‐of‐the...Salinification in the South China Sea since late 2012: a reversal of the freshening since 1990sCite2018 | Geophysical Research Letters 45(6): 2744-2751, 2018Description:Salinification has occurred in the South China Sea from late 2012 to the present, as shown by satellite Aquarius/Soil Moisture Active Passive data and...Effect of topography on subglacial discharge and submarine melting during tidewater glacier retreatCite2018 | JGR Earth Surface 123(1), 66-79, 2018Description:To first order, subglacial discharge depends on climate, which determines precipitation fluxes and glacier mass balance, and the rate of glacier volum...2018 | Geophysical Research Letters 45(14): 7148-7155, 2018Description:The Madden‐Julian oscillation (MJO) is the leading mode of tropical intraseasonal variability, having profound impacts on many weather and climate p...Personal Author:Kumar, Arun ;Zhu, Jieshun2018 | J. Clim. (2018) 31(2): 613–621Description:Seasonal prediction skill of SSTs from coupled models has considerable spatial variations. In the tropics, SST prediction skill in the tropical Pacifi...Personal Author:Deser, Clara ;Simpson, Isla R....2018 | J. Clim. (2018) 31(13): 4991–5014Description:The role of sampling variability in ENSO composites of winter surface air temperature and precipitation over North America during the period 1920–20...2018 | JGR Oceans 123(10), 7550-7563, 2018Description:Satellite observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and Sea‐viewing Wide Field‐of‐view Sensor reveal a “tongue” of...2018 | JGR Atmospheres 123(10), 4988-5000, 2018Description:Sensible heat flux directly influences local and regional climate and can be estimated using remotely sensed satellite observations. Although signific...2018 | ICES Journal of Marine Science, 75(6):2202–2212Description:Alteration and degradation of benthic structure by fishing gear can impede efforts to manage fish stock sustainably. Although the impacts of mobile ge...
More +
You May Also Like
Personal Author:
Rickenbach, Thomas M. ;
Ferreira, Rosana Nieto
...
2020 | Mon. Wea. Rev. (2020) 148 (3): 891–906.
Description:
This study examines the geographic and temporal characteristics of the springtime transition to the summer precipitation regime of isolated convection...
2018 | Atmospheric Research 209, 50-58, 2018
Description:
The Tibetan Plateau (TP), being an average of surpassing 4000 m above sea level and around 2.5 × 106 km2, is the highest and largest plateau in the w...
Checkout today's featured content at repository.library.noaa.gov