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Abstract Moist static energy (MSE) budgets and gross moist stability (GMS) have been widely used as a diagnostic tool to study the evolution of moisture and convection at different time scales. However, use of GMS is limited at shorter time scales because many points in the tropics have close-to-zero large-scale vertical motion at a given time. This is particularly true in the case of convective life cycles, which have been shown to exist with noise-like ubiquity throughout the tropics at intraseasonal time scales. This study proposes a novel phase angle–based framework as a process-level diagnostic tool to study the MSE budgets during these cycles. Using the GMS phase plane, a phase angle parameter is defined, which converts the unbound GMS into a finite ranged variable. The study finds that the convective life cycles are closely linked to evolution of moisture and effectively behave as moisture recharge–discharge cycles. Convective cycles in different datasets are studied using TOGA COARE, a mix of different satellite products and ERA-Interim. Analysis of the MSE budget reveals that the cyclic behavior is a result of transitions between wet and dry equilibrium states and is similar across different regions. Further, vertical and horizontal advection of MSE are found to act as the primary drivers behind this variability. In contrast, nonlinearities in the radiative and surface flux feedbacks are found to resist the convective evolution. A linearized model consistent with moisture mode dynamics is able to replicate the recharge–discharge cycle variability in TOGA COARE data. Significance Statement In the tropics, variability of moisture and rainfall are closely linked to each other. Through this study we aim to better understand the evolution of moisture in observed daily time series data. We present a novel phase angle–based diagnostic tool to represent and study the energy budget of the system at this time resolution. Our results suggest that similar processes and mechanisms are relevant across different regions and at different scales in the tropics with moisture dynamics being important for these processes. Further, a key role is played by the energy transport associated with the large-scale circulation that drives moisture evolution in a cyclic pattern.
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Atmosphere–Ocean Coupled Energy Budgets of Tropical Convective Discharge–Recharge Cycles
Abstract An energy budget combining atmospheric moist static energy (MSE) and upper ocean heat content (OHC) is used to examine the processes impacting day-to-day convective variability in the tropical Indian and western Pacific Oceans. Feedbacks arising from atmospheric and oceanic transport processes, surface fluxes, and radiation drive the cyclical amplification and decay of convection around suppressed and enhanced convective equilibrium states, referred to as shallow and deep convective discharge–recharge (D–R) cycles, respectively. The shallow convective D–R cycle is characterized by alternating enhancements of shallow cumulus and stratocumulus, often in the presence of extensive cirrus clouds. The deep convective D–R cycle is characterized by sequential increases in shallow cumulus, congestus, narrow deep precipitation, wide deep precipitation, a mix of detached anvil and altostratus and altocumulus, and once again shallow cumulus cloud types. Transitions from the shallow to deep D–R cycle are favored by a positive “column process” feedback, while discharge of convective instability and OHC by mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) contributes to transitions from the deep to shallow D–R cycle. Variability in the processes impacting MSE is comparable in magnitude to, but considerably more balanced than, variability in the processes impacting OHC. Variations in the quantity of atmosphere–ocean coupled static energy (MSE + OHC) result primarily from atmospheric and oceanic transport processes, but are mainly realized as changes in OHC. MCSs are unique in their ability to rapidly discharge both lower-tropospheric convective instability and OHC.
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- PAR ID:
- 10482281
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Meteorological Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- Volume:
- 81
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0022-4928
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 3-29
- Size(s):
- p. 3-29
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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