Mid-latitude atmospheric responses to heat and vorticity forcing using a linear baroclinic model

Based on diagnostic analysis of reanalysis data for 58-year, the distribution characteristics of decadal variability in diabatic heating, transient eddy heating and transient eddy vorticity forcing related to the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the North Pacific, as well as their relationship with anomalous atmospheric circulation have been investigated in this paper. A linear baroclinic model(LBM) was used to investigate atmospheric responses to idealized and realistic heat and vorticity forcing anomalies, and then to compare relative roles of different kinds of forcing in terms of geopotential height responses. The results illustrate that the responses of atmospheric height fields to the mid-latitude heating can be either baroclinic or barotropic. The response structure is sensitive to the relative horizontal location of heating with respect to the background jet flow, as well as to the vertical profile of heating. The response to the idealized deep heating over the eastern North Pacific, mimicking the observed heating anomaly, is baroclinic. The atmospheric response to the mid-latitude vorticity forcing is always barotropic, resulting in a geopotential low that is in phase with the forcing. The atmospheric responses to the realistic heat and vorticity forcing show the similar results, suggesting that diabatic heating, transient eddy heating and transient eddy vorticity forcing can all cause atmospheric anomalies and that the vorticity forcing plays a relatively more important role in maintaining the equivalent-barotropic structure of geopotential height anomalies.     

LBM模式中中纬度大气对热源和涡度强迫的响应(英文)

Based on diagnostic analysis of reanalysis data for 58-year,the distribution characteristics of decadal variability in diabatic heating,transient eddy heating and transient eddy vorticity forcing related to the sea surface temperature(SST)anomalies over the North Pacific,as well as their relationship with anomalous atmospheric circulation have been investigated in this paper.A linear baroclinic model(LBM)was used to investigate atmospheric responses to idealized and realistic heat and vorticity forcing anomalies,and then to compare relative roles of different kinds of forcing in terms of geopotential height responses.The results illustrate that the responses of atmospheric height fields to the mid-latitude heating can be either baroclinic or barotropic.The response structure is sensitive to the relative horizontal location of heating with respect to the background jet flow,as well as to the vertical profile of heating.The response to the idealized deep heating over the eastern North Pacific,mimicking the observed heating anomaly,is baroclinic.The atmospheric response to the mid-latitude vorticity forcing is always barotropic,resulting in a geopotential low that is in phase with the forcing.The atmospheric responses to the realistic heat and vorticity forcing show the similar results,suggesting that diabatic heating,transient eddy heating and transient eddy vorticity forcing can all cause atmospheric anomalies and that the vorticity forcing plays a relatively more important role in maintaining the equivalent-barotropic structure of geopotential height anomalies.     

The effect of barotropic shear on baroclinic instability Part I: Normal mode problem

The effect of barotropic shear in the basic flow on baroclinic instability is investigated using a linear multilevel quasi-geostrophic β-plane channel model and a nonlinear spherical primitive equation model. Barotropic shear has a profound effect on baroclinic instability. It reduces the growth rates of normal modes by severely restricting their structure, confirming earlier results with a two-layer model. Dissipation, in the form of Ekman pumping and Newtonian cooling, does not change the main characteristics of the effect of the shear on normal mode instability.Barotropic shear in the basic state, characterized by large shear vorticity with small horizontal curvature, also effects the nonlinear development of baroclinic waves. The shear limits the energy conversion from the zonal available potential energy to eddy energy, reducing the maximum eddy kinetic energy level reached by baroclinic waves. Barotropic shear, which controls the level of eddy activity, is a major factor which should be considered when parameterizing the eddy temperature and momentum fluxes induced by baroclinic waves in a climate model.     

Mean flow-transient perturbation interaction in the Southern Hemisphere: a simulation using a variable-resolution GCM

The ability of an atmospheric general circulation model to reproduce fundamental features of the wintertime extratropical Southern Hemisphere (SH) circulation is evaluated with emphasis on the daily variability of the SH mean flow and the mean flow-transient perturbations interaction. Two 10-year simulations using a new version of the LMDZ GCM with a stretched grid scheme centered at 45 °S and forced by climatological SST are performed: a high (144Ꮡ) and low (64Ꭹ) horizontal resolution runs. The performance of both simulations was determined by comparing several simulated fields (zonal wind, temperature, kinetic energy, transient eddy momentum and heat fluxes, Eliassen-Palm fluxes, Eady growth rate and baroclinic conversion term) against the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast reanalyses (ERA). High and low-resolution simulations are similar in many respects; in particular, both experiments reproduce the main patterns of the southern extratropical large-scale circulation satisfactorily. Increasing resolution does not improve universally some spurious aspects of the low resolution simulation (e.g. the cold bias in the high polar troposphere, the debilitated subtropical jet, the low baroclinic conversion rate). Those aspects present little sensitivity to the model resolution. The interaction between transient eddies and zonal mean flow are examined. The low-resolution experiment is able to qualitatively represent the acceleration/deceleration of the mean flow by transient perturbations, south/north of 30 °S with an accuracy similar to that of the high-resolution experiment. Although both experiments represent the baroclinic structure of the mean flow satisfactorily, the model underestimates some transient properties due to the underestimation of the baroclinic conversion term in middle latitudes. Such misrepresentation does not improve with increasing resolution and is related to the relatively weak meridional temperature gradient and the inadequate geographical distribution of the eddy heat fluxes. In particular, the eddy kinetic energy is always underestimated. Eddy kinetic energy does not improve convincingly with increasing resolution, suggesting that the adequate representation of the storm tracks is highly influenced by the physical parametrizations.     

Finite-amplitude, neutral baroclinic eddies and mean flows in an internally heated, rotating fluid: 2. Effects of spatially varying N

The analytical model of finite-amplitude, quasi-geostrophic ‘free mode’ baroclinic eddies and mean zonal flows in a Cartesian channel, presented recently by Read, is extended to take account of vertical variations in the buoyancy frequency N. A series of exact solutions is presented to illustrate the effect of monotonically varying static stability on the structure and properties of the flow. The analytical solutions are then compared with a corresponding series of numerical simulations of steady wave flows in a rotating fluid annulus subject to internal heating and sidewall cooling. By suitable choices of internal heating distributions and boundary conditions, several different forms of N² profile could be obtained in the simulated flows, in which N² was concentrated to a greater or lesser extent towards the upper boundary. The resulting steady flows exhibited strong qualitative similarities in their structure and dependence upon the form of N²(z) to that of the analytical solutions when realistic profiles of N² were included in the latter, especially when an equivalent-barotropic component was included, although the latter component is unable to satisfy the simplest (internal jet) form of horizontal boundary condition as usually applied to Rossby waves.The relatively weak, though crucially important, forcing and dissipation processes in the annulus are examined using approximate quasi-geostrophic diagnostics of the major terms in the budget of potential enstrophy for the numerical simulations. Internal heating is found to be the major source of potential enstrophy for the mean zonal flow, solely by virtue of the variation of N² with height, but has only a minor direct effect upon the eddy flow component. Because of the presence of critical layers in the flow, all non-linear terms (including the third-order potential enstrophy flux divergence) are found to be significant in certain regions. Some implications for the value and applicability of EP flux diagnostics are discussed. Potential enstrophy budgets for horizontal regions enclosed by geostrophic streamlines are used to shed further insight into the maintenance of the flow against ‘friction’, and on the form of the potential vorticity-streamfunction relationship. Some implications of the results for other systems of geophysical interest are also discussed.     

Midlatitude unstable air-sea interaction with atmospheric transient eddy dynamical forcing in an analytical coupled model

While recent observational studies have shown the critical role of atmospheric transient eddy (TE) activities in midlatitude unstable air-sea interaction, there is still a lack of a theoretical framework characterizing such an interaction. In this study, an analytical coupled air-sea model with inclusion of the TE dynamical forcing is developed to investigate the role of such a forcing in midlatitude unstable air-sea interaction. In this model, the atmosphere is governed by a barotropic quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity equation forced by surface diabatic heating and TE vorticity forcing. The ocean is governed by a baroclinic Rossby wave equation driven by wind stress. Sea surface temperature (SST) is determined by mixing layer physics. Based on detailed observational analyses, a parameterized linear relationship between TE vorticity forcing and meridional second-order derivative of SST is proposed to close the equations. Analytical solutions of the coupled model show that the midlatitude air-sea interaction with atmospheric TE dynamical forcing can destabilize the oceanic Rossby wave within a wide range of wavelengths. For the most unstable growing mode, characteristic atmospheric streamfunction anomalies are nearly in phase with their oceanic counterparts and both have a northeastward phase shift relative to SST anomalies, as the observed. Although both surface diabatic heating and TE vorticity forcing can lead to unstable air-sea interaction, the latter has a dominant contribution to the unstable growth. Sensitivity analyses further show that the growth rate of the unstable coupled mode is also influenced by the background zonal wind and the air–sea coupling strength. Such an unstable air-sea interaction provides a key positive feedback mechanism for midlatitude coupled climate variabilities.

     

A description of numerical antarctic circumpolar currents

A sequence of numerical calculations has been made for the equilibrium balances of eddies and mean currents in open and partially blocked, periodic channels. The physical model employed is a two-layer, quasigeostrophic, wind-driven one, with important bottom friction and weak lateral friction. The resolved eddies provide the interior fluxes of momentum and potential vorticity which allow the mean state to be a balanced one. The set of calculations does not provide a parameter study as such, but does provide examples of the influences of alternative physical processes and geometrical constraints. These alternatives include the presence or absence of a partial barrier across the channel, the length of the channel, the addition of a transient component to the wind-driving, and the addition of a topographic sill across the channel gap. Particular attention is focused upon the steadily driven general circulation of a β-plane channel, because of the structural simplicity of the solution. The results may be broadly summarized as follows. The eddies are generated by a baroclinic instability of the mean flow. They act to intensity the upper layer mean jet and mean cross-jet potential vorticity gradient (through eddy horizontal Reynolds stress and relative vorticity flux divergence, respectively) and to transfer downwards mean zonal momentum, energy, and potential vorticity gradient (through eddy interfacial pressure drag, vertical pressure work, and vortex stretching flux divergence, respectively). In the case of a zonally uniform channel, the meridional heat flux is found not to conform closely to previously proposed parameterizations. The presence of a partial meridional barrier and a topographic obstacle are found to strongly influence the equilibrium solution, while neither a change in the basin length nor the presence of a transient wind component appear to importantly alter the solution.     

A simple model of baroclinic adjustment and parameterization of eddy heat transport

Summary A nonlinear, forced, dissipative quasi-geostrophic, two-level -plane model of baroclinic instability is formulated. The model resolves a baroclinic zonal flow and a wave of arbitrary zonal scale. Multiple equilibrium solutions describing Hadley and eddy circulations coexist. Only the circulation with smaller thermal wind is stable. The most efficient eddy activity occurs at a zonal wavenumber close to the wavelength of maximum instability of linear baroclinic instability theory. For a wide range of forcing and dissipative parameters, the steady baroclinic zonal wind of the eddy regime is close to the critical shear of linear theory. Eddy statistics are obtained analytically in terms of the doparture of the zonally symmetric state from radiative equilibrium. A parameterization for the eddy heat transport is obtained.With 14 Figures     

The role of diabatic heating, torques and stabilities in forcing the radial-vertical circulation within cyclones part ii: case study of extratropical and tropical cyclones

Utilizing Eliassen’s concepts, the forcing of the isentropic azimuthally-averaged mass-weighted radial-vertical circulation by diabatic heating and torques within an extratropical cyclone and a typhoon was studied through nu-merical simulations based on the linear diagnostic equation derived previously. The structure of the forcing associated with diabatic heating and torques was determined from quasi-Lagrangian diagnostic analyses of actual case studies. The two cyclones studied were the Ohio extratropical cyclone of 25-27 January 1978 and typhoon Nancy of 18-23 September 1979. The Ohio cyclone, which formed over the Gulf Coast and moved through Ohio and eastern Michigan, was one of the most intense storms with blizzard conditions to ever occur in this region. Typhoon Nancy which occurred over the South China Sea during the FGGE year was selected since relatively high quality assimilated data were available. Within the Ohio cyclone, the dominant internal processes forcing the mean circulation with em-bedded relatively strong hydrodynamic stability were the pressure torque associated with baroclinic (asymmetric) structure and the horizontal eddy angular momentum transport associated with the typical S-shaped thermal and wind structures of self-development. Within typhoon Nancy, the dominant internal process forcing the mean circula-tion with embedded weak hydrodynamic stability was the latent heat release. This analysis shows that the simulated azimuthally-averaged mass-weighted radial motions within these two cy?clones agree quite well with the “observed” azimuthally-averaged mass-weighted radial motions. This isentropic nu?merical study also provides insight into the relatively important internal forcing processes and the trade off between forcing and stability within both extratropical and tropical cyclones.     

The effects of latitudinal asymmetries on baroclinic instability

Abstract

Baroclinic instability of zonal flows with different latitudinal structures is examined, using a linear, quasi‐geostrophic two‐level ß‐plane model. The flows have different amounts of skew, with respect to the channel centre, at different vertical levels. The results are interpreted in terms of the instability of the baroclinic components of the zonal flows. Because of the presence of latitudinal asymmetries, a spectrum of meridional modes is generated in the perturbation. In general, the meridional spectrum has two peaks: a primary peak at the planetary basic flow scale, and a secondary peak near the radius of deformation. As neutral stability is approached, the latter scale becomes more important, i.e. there is a tendency for more small‐scale structure near neutral stability. The perturbation zonal scale is close to the radius of deformation. The eddy amplitudes and momentum fluxes are also examined. The case that best applies to the atmosphere is also discussed.     

Sensitivity of tropical cyclone intensification to inner-core structure

In this study, the dependence of tropical cyclone (TC) development on the inner-core structure of the parent vortex is examined using a pair of idealized numerical simulations. It is found that the radial profile of inner-core relative vorticity may have a great impact on its subsequent development. For a system with a larger inner-core relative vorticity/inertial stability, the conversion ratio of the diabatic heating to kinetic energy is greater. Furthermore, the behavior of the convective vorticity eddies is likely modulated by the system-scale circulation. For a parent vortex with a relatively higher inner-core vorticity and larger negative radial vorticity gradient, convective eddy formation and radially inward propagation is promoted through vorticity segregation. This provides a greater potential for these small-scale convective cells to self-organize into a mesoscale inner-core structure in the TC. In turn, convectively induced diabatic heating that is close to the center, along with higher inertial stability, efficiently enhances system-scale secondary circulation. This study provides a solid basis for further research into how the initial structure of a TC influences storm dynamics and thermodynamics.     

The Diabatic Heating and the Generation of Available Potential Energy: Results from NCEP Reanalysis

In the existing studies on the atmospheric energy cycle, the attention to the generation of available potential energy (APE) is restricted to its global mean value. The geographical distributions of the generation of APE and its mechanism of formation are investigated by using the three-dimensional NCEP/NCAR diabatic heating reanalysis in this study. The results show that the contributions from sensible heating and net radiation to the generation of zonal and time-mean APE (Gz) are mainly located in high and middle latitudes with an opposite sign, while the latent heating shows a dominant effect on Gz mainly in the tropics and high latitudes where the contributions from the middle and upper tropospheres are also contrary to that from the low troposphere. In high latitudes, the Gz is much stronger for the Winter Hemisphere than for the Summer Hemisphere, and this is consistent with the asymmetrical feature shown by the reservoir- of zonal and time-mean APE in two hemispheres, which suggests that the generation of APE plays a fundamental role in maintaining the APE in the global atmospheric energy cycle. The same contributions to the generation of stationary eddy APE (GSE) from the different regions related to the maintenance of longitudinal temperature contrast are likely arisen by different physics. Specifically, the positive contributions to GSE from the latent heating in the western tropical Pacific and from the sensible heating over land are dominated by the heating at warm regions, whereas those from the latent heating in the eastern tropical Pacific and from the sensitive heating over the oceans are dominated by the cooling at cold regions. Thus, our findings provide an observational estimate of the generation of eddy APE to identify the regional contributions in the climate simulations because it might be correct for the wrong reasons in the general circulation model (GCM). The largest positive contributions to the generation of transient eddy APE (GTE) are found to be at middle latitudes in the middle and upper tropospheres, where reside the strong local contributions to the baroclinic conversion from transient eddy APE to transient eddy kinetic energy and the resulting transient eddy kinetic energy.     

On the Forced Tangentially-Averaged Radial- Vertical Circulation within Vortices Part Ⅰ: Concepts and Equations

将Eliassen建立在平面等压柱坐标系中的径向环流强迫理论（用于研究在摩擦力和非绝热加热过程影响下的静止对称涡旋），推广应用到研究移动非对称气旋或反气旋的径向环流，导出了考虑地球曲面影响的准拉格朗日等压柱坐标系的切向平均径向环流诊断方程，并根据Eliassen的解析解所揭示的涡旋径向环流在涡旋演变中的作用，定 性地讨论了各种热力和动力的作用，这些热力和动力因子除了磨擦力和非绝热加热外，还有平均和涡动形式的惯性力，角动量平流（相当涡度平流），角动量的垂直对流，温度平流，温度的垂直对流（相当绝热加热）等。     

Structure and variances of equatorial zonal circulation in a multimodel ensemble

The structure and variance of the equatorial zonal circulation, as characterized by the atmospheric mass flux in the equatorial zonal plane, is examined and inter-compared in simulations from 9 CMIP3 coupled climate models with multiple ensemble members and the NCEP-NCAR and ERA-40 reanalyses. The climate model simulations analyzed here include twentieth century (20C3M) and twenty-first century (SRES A1B) simulations. We evaluate the 20C3M modeled zonal circulations by comparing them with those in the reanalyses. We then examine the variability of the circulation, its changes with global warming, and the associated thermodynamic maintenance. The tropical zonal circulation involves three major components situated over the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans. The three cells are supported by the corresponding diabatic heating extending deeply throughout the troposphere, with heating centers apparent in the mid-troposphere. Seasonal features appear in the zonal circulation, including variations in its intensity and longitudinal migration. Most models, and hence the multi-model mean, represent the annual and seasonal features of the circulation and the associated heating reasonably well. The multi-model mean reproduces the observed climatology better than any individual model, as indicated by the spatial pattern correlation and mean square difference of the mass flux and the diabatic heating compared to the reanalysis based values. Projected changes in the zonal circulation under A1B forcing are dominated by mass flux changes over the Pacific and Indian oceans. An eastward shift of the Pacific Walker circulation is clearly evident with global warming, with anomalous rising motion apparent over the equatorial central Pacific and anomalous sinking motions in the west and east, which favors an overall strengthening of the Walker circulation. The zonal circulation weakens and shifts westwards over the Indian Ocean under external forcing, whereas it strengthens and shifts slightly westwards over the Atlantic Ocean. The forced circulation changes are associated with broad SST and atmospheric diabatic heating changes in the tropics. Linear trends of these forced circulation changes, as characterized by regional spatial maximum amplitudes of mass fluxes and their longitudes over the three oceans, are statistically significant at the 5?% level for 2000–2099 for the multi-model mean. However, wide differences of the trends are apparent across the models, because of both deficiencies in the simulation of the circulations in different models and the high internal variability of the circulations.     

ZONAL MEAN STRUCTURES OF THE EXTRATROPICAL TROPOSPHERE

The study of mean circulation fields requires evaluation of eddy foreings in the atmosphere.Due to the difficulty in calculating the eddy forcings on theory,the mean state equations including the eddy forcings were used mostly for diagnostic studies only.Using the geostrophic perturbation solutions obtained by McHall (1991a),we may deal with theoretically the eddy fluxes and their convergence.This allows us to employ the mean state equations for the study of mean circulation fields.It will be found that the time averaged zonal mean structure and circulation of the troposphere at middle and high latitudes can be reproduced basically in terms of the mass and momentum balances in geostrophic wave circulations.     

位涡倾向在Muifa台风路径转折中的应用

利用ECMWF资料诊断分析了位涡倾向方程中的水平平流项和非绝热加热项分别在Muifa台风两次路径转折中的作用。结果表明:第一次路径转折过程中,非绝热加热项的量级比水平平流项小一个量级,水平平流项所表征的外部大尺度环流因素是第一次路径转折的主要原因;第二次路径转向过程由水平平流项和非绝热加热项共同控制,其中水平平流项控制台风的移向,非绝热加热项表征的内部非对称结构对台风转向有抑制作用。     

The effect of barotropic shear on baroclinic instability Part II: The initial value problem

The effect of barotropic shear on baroclinic instability has been investigated using both a linear quasi-geostrophic β-plane channel model and a multilevel primitive equation model on the sphere when a nonmodal disturbance is used as the initial perturbation condition. The analysis of the initial value problem has demonstrated the existence of a rapid transient growth phase of the most unstable mode. The inclusion of a linear barotropic shear reduces initial rapid transient growth, although at intermediate times the transient growth rates of the sheared cases can be larger than in the unsheared case owing to downgradient eddy momentum fluxes. Certain disturbances can amplify by factors of 4.5–60 times (for the L₂ norm), or 3–30 times (for the perturbation amplitude maximum), as large as disturbances based on the linear normal modes. However, linear horizontal shear always reduces the amplification factors. The mechanism is that the shear confines the disturbance meriodionally and therefore limits the energy conversion from the zonal available potential energy to eddy energy. The effect of barotropic shear on the transient growth is not changed much in the presence of either thermal damping or Ekman pumping. Nonmodal integrations of baroclinic wave lifecycles show that the energy level reached by eddies is not very sensitive to the structure of the initial disturbance if the amplitude of the initial disturbance is small. Although in some cases the eddy kinetic energy level reached by the wave integrated from nonmodal disturbance can be 25–150% larger than the normal mode integrations, barotropic shear, characterized by large shear vorticity with small horizontal curvature, always reduces the eddy kinetic energy level reached by the wave, confirming the results of normal mode studies.     

两例爆发性东北低压的对比诊断分析

该文选择了发展变化机制有一定差异的两例春季爆发性东北低压（分别是1983年4月25～26日气旋（简称A例）和1983年4月28～29日气旋（简称B例）），进行了对比诊断分析。结果表明:（1）非绝热加热和局地斜压不稳定对A例气旋发展来说是十分关键的因子，而空正IPV平流的显著增强及其与低层IPV分布中两个局地最大值的垂直耦合是B例气旋增强的一个重要原因；（2）两个风暴最大不同点在于非绝热加热效应在影响气旋增强的程度上有所不同。另外，B例事件中对流层中部产生的较强高空锋生可以在低压范围内导致深厚的上升运动并使高空锋向下游的正涡度平流得以加强，这对系统的发展是十分有利的。     

Month-Long Simulations of Gravity Waves over North America and North Atlantic in Comparison with Satellite Observations

Mesoscale simulations of gravity waves in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere over North America and North Atlantic Ocean in January 2003 are compared with satellite radiance measurements from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A). Four regions of strong gravity wave (GW) activities are found in the model simulations and the AMSU-A observations: the northwestern Atlantic, the U.S. Rockies, the Appalachians, and Greenland. GWs over the northwestern Atlantic Ocean are associated with the midlatitude baroclinic jet-front system, while the other three regions are apparently related to high topography. Model simulations are further used to analyze momentum fluxes in the zonal and meridional directions. It is found that strong westward momentum fluxes are prevalent over these regions over the whole period. Despite qualitative agreement between model simulations and satellite measurements, sensitivity experiments demonstrate that the simulated GWs are sensitive to the model spin-up time.     

Some dynamical properties of idealized thermally-forced meridional circulations in the tropics

Summary Through the use of a zonal balance model we investigate the properties of the tropical meridional circulation to a range of specified diabatic forcing fields for climatologically observed zonal winds. As in earlier studies, the solutions show that latent heat release away from the equator forces an asymmetric meridional circulation in response the anisotropy in the inertial stability parameter with respect to the meridional location of the forcing. The presence of strong zonal flows appears to play a relatively minor role in determining the magnitude and asymmetry of the meridional circulation, whereas the structure of the diabatic heating, particularly the meridional breadth, proves to be of much greater importance.A dynamic efficiency factor, which provides an analytic measure of the efficacy of diabatic heating at generating zonal kinetic energy, generally exhibits a meridionally symmetric structure except during Northern Hemisphere summer. This asymmetry gives rise to a pronounced sensitivity of zonal kinetic energy generation to the meridional location of ITCZ convection. Further examination of the flow pattern suggests that for zonal flows representative of those over the Indian Ocean during the Northern Hemisphere summer months, meridional displacements of the heating of less than 20° latitude can result in as much as an order of magnitude difference in the rate of kinetic energy generation. Solution of the balance system also implies the existence of a feedback mechanism, between zonally-organized convection and the energetics properties of the large-scale flow, that is highly sensitive to the meridional location of the convection.With 11 FiguresThe National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.