Low-level high-frequency modes in the Tropical Atlantic and their relation to precipitation in the equatorial South America

Summary ?Evolving aspects of the dominant high-frequency modes of the 925-hPa v-component and precipitable water in the Tropical South American and Atlantic sector are studied for the austral summer and winter seasons. Their relations to the precipitation anomalies over the equatorial South America are also investigated. The highest percentages of the total variance contained in the high-frequency time-scale for the 925-hPa v-component have a clear seasonal dependency such that they are confined in the Tropical South Atlantic (TSA) during the austral summer and in the Tropical North Atlantic (TNA) during the austral winter. The high-frequency variability for the TSA during the austral summer stems from the combined effects of equatorward incursions of midlatitude synoptic and transient wave systems, equatorial trades and westward traveling disturbances in equatorial latitudes. All these systems together have a pronounced effect in modulating the summer precipitation over northeastern South America, though the isolated effect of the easterly waves is weak. In contrast, the high-frequency variability for the TNA during the austral winter is mainly due to wave-type westward traveling tropical disturbances. These disturbances have an important role in modulating the daily precipitation of northern part of the South America during the austral winter. Received June 28, 2002; accepted July 24, 2002 Published online: March 20, 2003     

Equatorial Atlantic variability and its relation to mean state biases in CMIP5

Coupled general circulation model (GCM) simulations participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) are analyzed with respect to their performance in the equatorial Atlantic. In terms of the mean state, 29 out of 33 models examined continue to suffer from serious biases including an annual mean zonal equatorial SST gradient whose sign is opposite to observations. Westerly surface wind biases in boreal spring play an important role in the reversed SST gradient by deepening the thermocline in the eastern equatorial Atlantic and thus reducing upwelling efficiency and SST cooling in the following months. Both magnitude and seasonal evolution of the biases are very similar to what was found previously for CMIP3 models, indicating that improvements have only been modest. The weaker than observed equatorial easterlies are also simulated by atmospheric GCMs forced with observed SST. They are related to both continental convection and the latitudinal position of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Particularly the latter has a strong influence on equatorial zonal winds in both the seasonal cycle and interannual variability. The dependence of equatorial easterlies on ITCZ latitude shows a marked asymmetry. From the equator to 15°N, the equatorial easterlies intensify approximately linearly with ITCZ latitude. When the ITCZ is south of the equator, on the other hand, the equatorial easterlies are uniformly weak. Despite serious mean state biases, several models are able to capture some aspects of the equatorial mode of interannual SST variability, including amplitude, pattern, phase locking to boreal summer, and duration of events. The latitudinal position of the boreal spring ITCZ, through its influence on equatorial surface winds, appears to play an important role in initiating warm events.     

热带气旋与文昌降水

通过研究热带气旋的活动规律以及对文昌天气的影响,揭示了各类路径的热带气旋在不同的位置与文昌降水的关系。     

Tropical precipitation, SSTs and the surface energy budget: a zonally symmetric perspective

The relative importance of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and the surface energy budget to tropical precipitation is examined by comparing models with zonally symmetric climates, both fixed SST and coupled to a slab mixed layer ocean. Two models are considered with differing surface flux formulations and in each case solutions that are symmetric about the equator are perturbed to create interhemispheric asymmetry. When SSTs are prescribed in the two models with different flux formulations, the magnitude of tropical precipitation response to identical SST anomalies is significantly different, but the differences can be understood in terms of the altered surface fluxes. In contrast, when the net surface energy fluxes are constrained to be identical in mixed layer simulations of the two different models, the response of tropical precipitation to perturbations in the surface energy balance is very similar. Both perspectives predict qualitatively the same precipitation response, but the energy budget better predicts the magnitude of the precipitation response. Thus, we argue that the atmospheric energy budget, controlled in these experiments primarily by the surface energy budget, is more fundamental to the control of tropical precipitation than the SSTs, in these simulations with axisymmetric climates. We touch briefly on a complication in the interpretation of the model results due to the fact that fixed SST and slab-ocean versions of the model can produce different Hadley cell strengths for the same SSTs.     

The sensitivity of sub-Saharan precipitation to Atlantic SST

The climate model of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Hansen et al., 1983) is used to study the sensitivity of sub-Saharan rainfall to Atlantic Ocean SST. Initial changes of SST in the South Atlantic Ocean on March 1st are shown to reduce the June–August sub-Saharan precipitation totals using the model version with an interactive ocean that updates SST. Evidence is offered in support of theories that link Sahel drought with anomalously warm SST in the eastern South Atlantic and the study compares the model's response to spatially coherent SST anomalies with the response to random SST perturbations. The physical processes whereby SST and sea-level pressure synoptics influence the African summer monsoon are discussed in reference to the simulations. Predictibility of Sahel summer rainfall based on spring SST patterns or spring atmospheric circulation patterns is implied by the results. The SST/Sahel drought links are discussed for projections of future climate characteristics.     

QBO Features of Tropical Pacific wind Stress Field with the Relation to El Nino

Analysis has been implemented of 1970-1992 tropical Pacific wind stress anomaly and sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) datasets, indicating that quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of the tropical Pacific WS and SSTA is featured both by a standing and a progressive form, the former emerging in the most intense centers of action and the latter travelling east- or west-ward out of the SSTA sources. Results show that the SSTA is in the warm (cold) phase as zonal component of euqatorial wind stress anomaly gets weakened (reinforced) and the QBO of wind stress anomaly is well related to the El Nino cycle.     

Sea surface wind stress and drag coefficients: The hexos results

Turbulent fluxes have been measured in the atmospheric surface layer from a boom extending upwind from the Dutch offshore research platform Meetpost Noordwijk (MPN) during HEXMAX (Humidity Exchange over the Sea Main Experiment) in October–November, 1986. We started out to study eddy flux of water vapour, but discrepancies among simultaneous measurements made with three different anemometers led us to develop methods to correct eddy correlation measurements of wind stress for flow distortion by nearby objects. We then found excellent agreement among the corrected wind stress data sets from the three anemometers on the MPN boom and with eddy correlation measurements from a mast on a tripod. Inertial-dissipation techniques gave reliable estimates of wind stress from turbulence spectra, both at MPN and at a nearby ship. The data cover a range of wave ages and the results yield new insights into the variation of sea surface wind stress with sea state; two alternative formulas are given for the nondimensional surface roughness as a function of wave age.     

Modeled Sverdrup flow in the North Atlantic from 11 different wind stress climatologies

In studies of large-scale ocean dynamics, often quoted values of Sverdrup transport are computed using the Hellerman–Rosenstein wind stress climatology. The Sverdrup solution varies, however, depending on the wind set used. We examine the differences in the large-scale upper ocean response to different surface momentum forcing fields for the North Atlantic Ocean by comparing the different Sverdrup interior/Munk western boundary layer solutions produced by a 1/16° linear numerical ocean model forced by 11 different wind stress climatologies. Significant differences in the results underscore the importance of careful selection of a wind set for Sverdrup transport calculation and for driving nonlinear models. This high-resolution modeling approach to solving the linear wind-driven ocean circulation problem is a convenient way to discern details of the Sverdrup flow and Munk western boundary layers in areas of complicated geometry such as the Caribbean and Bahamas. In addition, the linear solutions from a large number of wind sets provide a well-understood baseline oceanic response to wind stress forcing and thus, (1) insight into the dynamics of observed circulation features, by themselves and in conjunction with nonlinear models, and (2) insight into nonlinear model sensitivity to the choice of wind-forcing product.The wind stress products are evaluated and insight into the linear dynamics of specific ocean features is obtained by examining wind stress curl patterns in relation to the corresponding high-resolution linear solutions in conjunction with observational knowledge of the ocean circulation. In the Sverdrup/Munk solutions, the Gulf Stream pathway consists of two branches. One separates from the coast at the observed separation point, but penetrates due east in an unrealistic manner. The other, which overshoots the separation point at Cape Hatteras and continues to flow northward along the continental boundary, is required to balance the Sverdrup interior transport. A similar depiction of the Gulf Stream is commonly seen in the mean flow of nonlinear, eddy-resolving basin-scale models of the North Atlantic Ocean. An O(1) change from linear dynamics is required for realistic simulation of the Gulf Stream pathway. Nine of the eleven Sverdrup solutions have a C-shaped subtropical gyre, similar to what is seen in dynamic height contours derived from observations. Three mechanisms are identified that can contribute to this pattern in the Sverdrup transport contours. Along 27°N, several wind sets drive realistic total western boundary current transport (within 10% of observed) when a 14 Sv global thermohaline contribution is added (COADS, ECMWF 10 m re-analysis and operational, Hellerman–Rosenstein and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) surface stress re-analysis), a few drive transport that is substantially too high (ECMWF 1000 mb re-analysis and operational and Isemer–Hasse) and Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) surface stresses give linear transport that is slightly weaker than observed. However, higher order dynamics are required to explain the partitioning of this transport between the Florida Straits and just east of the Bahamas (minimal in the linear solutions vs. 5 Sv observed east of the Bahamas). Part of the Azores Current transport is explained by Sverdrup dynamics. So are the basic path of the North Atlantic Current (NAC) and the circulation features within the Intra-Americas Sea (IAS), when a linear rendition of the northward upper ocean return flow of the global thermohaline circulation is added in the form of a Munk western boundary layer.     

热带大洋东、西部对风应力经圈不对称的响应

热带海洋,特别是热带太平洋,物理场在东、西两部分的经圈结构很不相同,西太平洋“暖池”的温度分布对赤道基本上是对称的,而东太平洋的“冷舌”偏在赤道以南,对赤道明显不对称。作者从波动性质解释了这种分布的特征,指出在西太平洋,由于对赤道对称的向东的Kelvin波具有较大的振幅,其权重明显大于Rossby短波,致使物理场具有对赤道的对称性;而在东太平洋,由边界激发出的偶次的和奇次的Rossby长波,振幅权重很相近,从而使物理场显不对称性。     

The Equatorial Undercurrent in the central Atlantic and its relation to tropical Atlantic variability

Seasonal to interannual variations of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) in the central Atlantic at 23°W are studied using shipboard observation taken during the period 1999–2011 as well as moored velocity time series covering the period May 2005–June 2011. The seasonal variations are dominated by an annual harmonic of the EUC transport and the EUC core depth (both at maximum during September), and a semiannual harmonic of the EUC core velocity (maximum during April and September). Substantial interannual variability during the period of moored observation included anomalous cold/warm equatorial Atlantic cold tongue events during 2005/2008. The easterly winds in the western equatorial Atlantic during boreal spring that represent the preconditioning of cold/warm events were strong/weak during 2005/2008 and associated with strong/weak boreal summer EUC transport. The anomalous year 2009 was instead associated with weak preconditioning and smallest EUC transport on record from January to July, but during August coldest SST anomalies in the eastern equatorial Atlantic were observed. The interannual variations of the EUC are discussed with respect to recently described variability of the tropical Atlantic Ocean.     

Tropical response to the Atlantic Equatorial mode: AGCM multimodel approach

On the frame of the AMMA-EU project, sensitivity experiments for an Atlantic Equatorial mode (AEM) which origin, development and damping resembles the observed one during the last decades of the 20th century, has been analysed in order to investigate the influence on the anomalous summer West African rainfall. Recent studies raise the matter of the AEM influence on the next Pacific ENSO episodes and also on the Indian Monsoon. This paper evaluates the response of four different atmospheric global circulation models, using the above-mentioned AEM sensitivity experiments, to study the tropical forcing associated with the Atlantic Niño mode. The results show a remote signal in both the Pacific and Indian basins. For a warm phase of the AEM the associated southward location of the ITCZ, with rising motions over the Equatorial Atlantic, leads to a global subsidence over the rest of the tropics, weakening the Asian Monsoon and favouring the La Niña conditions in the central Pacific. Although ocean–atmosphere coupled experiments are required to test the latter hypothesis, the present studies shows how the AEM is able to influence the rest of the tropics, a result with important implications on ENSO seasonal predictability.     

The North Atlantic Oscillation and oceanic precipitation variability

Global North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) oceanic precipitation features in the latter half of the twentieth century are documented based on the intercomparison of multiple state-of-the-art precipitation datasets and the analysis of the NAO atmospheric circulation and SST anomalies. Most prominent precipitation anomalies occur over the ocean in the North Atlantic, where in winter a “quadrupole-like” pattern is found with centers in the western tropical Atlantic, sub-tropical Atlantic, high-latitude eastern Atlantic and over the Labrador Sea. The extent of the sub-tropical and high-latitude center and the amount of explained variance (over 50%) are quite remarkable. However, the tropical Atlantic center is probably the most intriguing feature of this pattern apparently linking the NAO with ITCZ variability. In summer, the pattern is “tripole-like” with centers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea/Baltic Sea and in the sub-polar Atlantic. In the eastern Indian Ocean, the correlation is positive in winter and negative in summer, with some link to ENSO variability. The sensitivity of these patterns to the choice of the NAO index is minor in winter while quite important in summer. Interannual NAO precipitation anomalies have driven similar fresh water variations in these “key” regions. In the sub-tropical and high-latitude Atlantic in winter precipitation anomalies have been roughly 15 and 10% of climatology per unit change of the NAO, respectively. Decadal changes of the NAO during the last 50 years have also influenced precipitation and fresh water flux at these time-scales, with values lower (higher) than usual in the high-latitude eastern North Atlantic (Labrador Sea) in the 1960s and the late 1970s, and an opposite situation since the early 1980s; in summer the North Sea/Baltic region has been drier than usual during the period 1965–1975 when the NAO was generally positive.     

On the relation between surface wind and pressure gradient,especially in lower latitudes

Observations show that the angle between surface wind and isobar increases equatorward in low latitudes while the ratio of surface to geostrophic wind speed decreases. With the use of Southern Hemisphere winter fields of surface pressure and temperature over the oceans, and Rossby number similarity theory (including the effects of baroclinicity) in several different forms, the expected latitudinal variation of the angle and ratio has been computed. A check has also been made of mean ATEX and BOMEX data. It appear that the variations with latitude are probably mainly due to baroclinicity. With this factor taken into account, similarity theory fairly adequately explains the observations.A recently proposed form of similarity theory based on the assumption of very strong momentum mixing in the boundary layer was also tested. It predicts the equatorward increase of the angle, even without baroclinicity. Quantitatively the results of the test are not in good agreement with observation. However, the strong convective mixing assumed in the theory does not generally occur over the oceans, and this test must be regarded as inconclusive.     

Tropical Precipitation Estimated by GPCP and TRMM PR Observations

In this study, tropical monthly mean precipitation estimated by the latest Global Precipitation Climatology Project （GPCP） version 2 dataset and Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission Precipitation Radar （TRMM PR） are compared in temporal and spatial scales in order to comprehend tropical rainfall climatologically. Reasons for the rainfall differences derived from both datasets are discussed. Results show that GPCP and TRMM PR datasets present similar distribution patterns over the Tropics but with some differences in amplitude and location. Generally, the average difference over the ocean of about 0.5 mm d^-1 is larger than that of about 0.1 mm d^-1 over land. Results also show that GPCP tends to underestimate the monthly precipitation over the land region with sparse rain gauges in contrast to regions with a higher density of rain gauge stations. A Probability Distribution Function （PDF） analysis indicates that the GPCP rain rate at its maximum PDF is generally consistent with the TRMM PR rain rate as the latter is less than 8 mm d^-1. When the TRMM PR rain rate is greater than 8 mm d^-1, the GPCP rain rate at its maximum PDF is less by at least 1 mm d^-1 compared to TRMM PR estimates. Results also show an absolute bias of less than 1 mm d^-1 between the two datasets when the rain rate is less than 10 mm d^-1. A large relative bias of the two datasets occurs at weak and heavy rain rates.