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Title: The Zonal Seasonal Cycle of Tropical Precipitation: Introducing the Indo-Pacific Monsoonal Mode
The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is associated with a zonal band of strong precipitation that migrates meridionally over the seasonal cycle. Tropical precipitation also migrates zonally, such as from the South Asian monsoon in Northern Hemisphere summer (JJA) to the precipitation maximum of the west Pacific in Northern Hemisphere winter (DJF). To explore this zonal movement in the Indo-Pacific sector, we analyze the seasonal cycle of tropical precipitation using a 2D energetic framework and study idealized atmosphere–ocean simulations with and without ocean dynamics. In the observed seasonal cycle, an atmospheric energy and precipitation anomaly forms over South Asia in northern spring and summer due to heating over land. It is then advected eastward into the west Pacific in northern autumn and remains there due to interactions with the Pacific cold tongue and equatorial easterlies. We interpret this phenomenon as a “monsoonal mode,” a zonally propagating moist energy anomaly of continental and seasonal scale. To understand the behavior of the monsoonal mode, we develop and explore an analytical model in which the monsoonal mode is advected by low-level winds, is sustained by interaction with the ocean, and decays due to the free tropospheric mixing of energy.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2023483 2023520
PAR ID:
10550473
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
American Meteorological Society
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of Climate
Volume:
37
Issue:
14
ISSN:
0894-8755
Page Range / eLocation ID:
3807 to 3824
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
Intertropical convergence zone Tropics Atmospheric circulation Energy transport Hadley circulation Walker circulation
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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