role of narrow mountains in large scale organization of asian monsoon convection abstract the asian summer monsoon is organized into distinct convection centers but the mechanism for this organization is not well understood analysis of new satellite observations reveals that narrow mountain ranges are an important organizing agent anchoring monsoon convection centers on the windward side the bay of bengal convection in particular features the heaviest precipitation on its eastern coast because of orographic lifting as the southwest monsoon impinges on the coastal mountains of myanmar also known as burma this is in contrast to the widely held view that this convection is centered over the open ocean as implied by coarse resolution datasets a view that would require an entirely different explanation for its formation narrow in width and modest in height 1 km these mountains are hardly mentioned in conceptual depictions of the large scale monsoon and poorly represented in global climate models the numerical simulations of this study show that orographic rainbands are not a

boundary layer control on convective available potential energy implications for cumulus parameterization 1 convective available potential energy cape frequently regarded as an indicator of the potential intensity of deep convection is strongly controlled by the properties of the planetary boundary layer bl variations in cape observed during field experiments in midcontinent north america the tropical east atlantic and the tropical west pacific can be accounted for mostly by changes in the temperature and humidity in the bl the coupling between cape and the bl holds for both convective and nonconvective conditions the coupling under conditions of deep convection implies a constraint on the intensity of deep convection which can be used as a closure for cumulus parameterization this constraint requires equilibrium in the environment of the parcel used as a basis for calculating cape over many cases parcel environment equilibrium is observed to hold more robustly than equilibrium of cape itself when observational uncertainties are considered it is uncertain whether quasi equilibrium in which the rate of change of cape is substantially less than the rate at which mean advection and bl fluxes change cape holds at subdiurnal timescales in the eastern atlantic and the western pacific quasi equilibrium is a poor approximation at subdiurnal timescales in midcontinent north america at timescales approaching diurnal quasi equilibrium holds in all cases cumulus parameterizations based on quasi equilibrium may be limited in their ability to model diurnal cycles as a result cape fluctuations related to large subdiurnal variations in surface fluxes are much sharper than cape fluctuations related to changes in mean advection above the bl especially over land the strong bl control on cape indicates that deep convection does not equilibrate rapid high amplitude variations in cape originating there less

midlatitude atmospheric transient eddy feedbacks influenced enso associated wintertime pacific teleconnection patterns in two pdo phases the el nino southern oscillation enso associated wintertime atmospheric teleconnection patterns in two pacific decadal oscillation pdo phases are investigated using era 20c reanalysis data for 1950 2010 a strengthened enso associated pacific north american pna teleconnection pattern presents in pdo positive phase while a west pacific wp pattern over northwestern pacific and a squeezed pna pattern coexist when enso occurs in pdo negative phase the dynamical role of atmospheric transient eddy feedbacks to the teleconnection patterns are highlighted in the present study when enso occurs in pdo positive phase the uniform strengthened westerly jet anomalies downstream of the climatological main body of jet accompany with energetic transient eddy anomalies over northeastern pacific the transient eddy feedbacks largely enhance and favor the strengthened pna pattern when enso occurs in pdo negative phase the strengthened westerly jet anomalies appear to separate into two parts one locating north of the climatological main body of jet and the other at the downstream the accompanied transient eddy anomalies also split into two parts under such conditions the transient eddy feedbacks are limited over northeastern pacific and favor a weak pna pattern however the transient eddy anomalies over northwestern pacific strengthen and the feedbacks also strengthen and largely contribute to the wp pattern moreover the transient eddy anomalies over northwestern pacific seem to be anchored along the anomalously poleward strengthened oceanic subarctic frontal zone safz in pdo negative phase the enhanced atmospheric baroclinicity anomalies coupled with the strengthened safz energize atmospheric transient eddy anomalies and work as the potential maintenance in shaping the wp pattern

north pacific cloud feedbacks inferred from synoptic scale dynamic and thermodynamic relationships abstract daily satellite cloud observations and reanalysis dynamical parameters are analyzed to determine how midtropospheric vertical velocity and advection over the sea surface temperature gradient control midlatitude north pacific cloud properties optically thick clouds with high tops are generated by synoptic ascent but two different cloud regimes occur under synoptic descent when vertical motion is downward during summer extensive stratocumulus cloudiness is associated with near surface northerly wind while frequent cloudless pixels occur with southerly wind examination of ship reported cloud types indicates that midlatitude stratocumulus breaks up as the boundary layer decouples when it is advected equatorward over warmer water cumulus is prevalent under conditions of synoptic descent and cold advection during winter poleward advection of subtropical air over colder water causes stratification of the near surface layer that inhibits upward mixing of moisture and suppresses cloudiness until a

air sea interaction at the southern brazilian continental shelf in situ observations the influence of the cross shelf oceanographic front occurring between the brazil current bc and the brazilian coastal current bcc on the local marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl is investigated here this front is typical of wintertime in the southern brazilian continental shelf sbcs and this is the first time that its effects are investigated over the above mabl here we analyze variability vertical structure and stability of mabl as well as heat fluxes at air sea interface across five oceanographic transects in the sbcs made during a winter 2012 cruise local thermal gradients associated with mixing between distinct water masses play an essential role on mabl modulation and stability although weaker when compared with other frontal regions the cross shelf thermal gradients reproduce exactly what is expected for open ocean regions stronger weaker winds lower higher sea level pressure and a more unstable stable mabl are found over the warm cold side of the oceanographic front between the bc warm and coastal cold waters our findings strongly support the coexistence of both known mabl modulation mechanisms the static and hydrostatic mabl stability this is the first time that these modulation mechanisms are documented for this region turbulent fluxes were found to be markedly dependent on the cross shelf sst gradients resulting in differences of up to 100 w m 2 especially in the southernmost region where the gradients were more intense

monsoon convection in the himalayan region as seen by the trmm precipitation radar three dimensional structure of summer monsoon convection in the himalayan region and its overall variability are examined by analyzing data from the tropical rainfall measuring mission trmm precipitation radar over the june september seasons of 2002 and 2003 statistics are compiled for both convective and stratiform components of the observed radar echoes deep intense convective echoes 40 dbz echo reaching heights 10 km occur primarily just upstream south of and over the lower elevations of the himalayan barrier especially in the northwestern concave indentation of the barrier the deep intense convective echoes are vertically erect consistent with the relatively weak environmental shear they sometimes extend above 17 km indicating that exceptionally strong updraughts loft graupel to high altitudes occasionally scattered isolated deep intense convective echoes occur over the tibetan plateau wide intense convective echoes 40 dbz echo 1000 km2 in horizontal dimension also occur preferentially just upstream of and over the lower elevations of the himalayas most frequently in the northwestern indentation of the barrier the wide intense echoes have an additional tendency to occur along the central portion of the himalayas and they seldom if ever occur over the tibetan plateau the wide intense echoes exhibit three mesoscale structures amorphous areas lines parallel to the mountain barrier and arc shaped squall lines perpendicular to and propagating parallel to the steep himalayan barrier the latter are rare generally weaker than those seen in other parts of the world and occur when a midlevel jet is aligned with the himalayan escarpment deep and wide intense convective echoes over the northwestern subcontinent tend to occur where the low level moist layer of monsoon air from the arabian sea meets dry downslope flow in a manner reminiscent of severe convection leeward of the rocky mountains in the central usa as the low level layer of moist air from the sea moves over the hot arid northwestern subcontinent it is capped by an elevated layer of dry air advected off the afghan or tibetan plateau the capped low level monsoonal airflow accumulates instability via surface heating until this instability is released by orographically induced lifting immediately adjacent to or directly over the foothills of the himalayas broad 50 000 km2 in area stratiform echoes occur in the eastern and central portions of the himalayan region in connection with bay of bengal depressions their centroids are most frequent just upstream of the himalayas in the region of the concave indentation of the barrier at the eastern end of the range the steep topography apparently enhances the formation and longevity of the broad stratiform echoes monsoonal depressions provide a moist maritime environment for the convection evidently allowing mesoscale systems to develop larger stratiform echoes than in the western himalayan region copyright 2007 royal meteorological society

atmospheric responses to kuroshio sst front in the east china sea under different prevailing winds in winter and spring abstractatmospheric responses to the kuroshio sst front in the east china sea under different prevailing winds are examined using high resolution observations and numerical modeling satellite data reveal a significant in phase relationship between sst and surface wind speed indicative of ocean to atmosphere influence the atmospheric response varies according to the relative surface wind direction with respect to the sst front orientation under the alongfront condition low high slp anomalies are found on the warmer colder flank of the front accompanied by surface wind convergence divergence enhanced precipitation and frequent cumulus convection appear over the warm kuroshio suggesting an atmospheric response extending into the free troposphere under the cross front condition when the air blows from cold to warm warm to cold sst divergence convergence is located directly over the sst front and its magnitude is proportional to the downwind sst gradient under such prevailing winds the

investigating the local atmospheric response to a realistic shift in the oyashio sea surface temperature front abstractthe local atmospheric response to a realistic shift of the oyashio extension sst front in the western north pacific is analyzed using a high resolution hr 0 25 version of the global community atmosphere model version 5 cam5 a northward shift in the sst front causes an atmospheric response consisting of a weak surface wind anomaly but a strong vertical circulation extending throughout the troposphere in the lower troposphere most of the sst anomaly induced diabatic heating is balanced by poleward transient eddy heat and moisture fluxes collectively this response differs from the circulation suggested by linear dynamics where extratropical sst forcing produces shallow anomalous heating balanced by strong equatorward cold air advection driven by an anomalous stationary surface low to the east this latter response however is obtained by repeating the same experiment except using a relatively low resolution lr 1 version of cam5 comparison to observations suggests that the hr respo

direct observations of atmospheric boundary layer response to sst variations associated with tropical instability waves over the eastern equatorial pacific tropical instability waves tiws with a typical wavelength of 1000 km and period of 30 days cause the equatorial front to meander and result in sst variations on the order of 18 28c vertical soundings of temperature humidity and wind velocity were obtained on board a japanese research vessel which sailed through three fully developed sst waves from 1408 to 1108w along 28n during 21 28 september 1999 a strong temperature inversion is observed throughout the cruise along 28n capping the planetary boundary layer pbl that is 1 1 5 km deep temperature response to tiw induced sst changes penetrates the whole depth of the pbl in response to an sst increase air temperature rises in the lowest kilometer and shows a strong cooling at the mean inversion height as a result this temperature dipole is associated with little tiw signal in the observed sea level pressure slp the cruise mean vertical profiles show a speed maximum at 400 500 m for both zonal and meridional velocities sst based composite profiles of zonal wind velocity show weakened intensified vertical shear within the pbl that is consistent with enhanced reduced vertical mixing causing surface wind to accelerate decelerate over warm cold ssts taken together the temperature and wind soundings indicate the dominance of the vertical mixing over the slp driving mechanism based on the authors measurements a physical interpretation of the widely used pbl model proposed by lindzen and nigam is presented

ship observations and numerical simulation of the marine atmospheric boundary layer over the spring oceanic front in the northwestern south china sea the response of the marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl structure to an oceanic front is analyzed using global positioning system gps sounding data obtained during a survey in the northwestern south china sea nscs over a period of about 1 week in april 2013 the weather research and forecasting wrf model is used to further examine the thermodynamical mechanisms of the mabl s response to the front the wrf model successfully simulates the change in the mabl structure across the front which agrees well with the observations the spatially high pass filtered fields of sea surface temperature sst and 10 m neutral equivalent wind from the wrf model simulation show a tight positive coupling between the sst and surface winds near the front meanwhile the sst front works as a damping zone to reduce the enhancement of wind blowing from the warm to the cold side of the front in the lower boundary layer analysis of the momentum budget shows that the most active and significant term affecting horizontal momentum over the frontal zone is the adjustment of the pressure gradient it is found that the front in the nscs is wide enough for slowly moving air parcels to be affected by the change in underlying sst the different thermal structure upwind and downwind of the front causes a baroclinic adjustment of the perturbation pressure from the surface to the midlayer of the mabl which dominates the change in the wind profile across the front

satellite measurements reveal persistent small scale features in ocean winds four year averages of 25 kilometer resolution measurements of near surface wind speed and direction over the global ocean from the quikscat satellite radar scatterometer reveal the existence of surprisingly persistent small scale features in the dynamically and thermodynamically important curl and divergence of the wind stress air sea interaction over sea surface temperature fronts throughout the world ocean is evident in both the curl and divergence fields as are the influences of islands and coastal mountains ocean currents such as the gulf stream generate distinctive patterns in the curl field these previously unresolved features have important implications for oceanographic and air sea interaction research

coupled ocean atmospheric waves on the equatorial front striking 20 30 day sea surface temperature waves observed along the equatorial front in the later half of the year are generally believed to be of an oceanic origin here we report the detection of atmospheric waves that are unambiguously tied to these oceanic waves using new satellite measurements of surface winds a general circulation model simulation reveals that these atmospheric waves have a shallow vertical structure trapped in the planetary boundary layer pbl unlike el nino southern oscillation where changes in deep convection are the cause of anomalous winds vertical wave motion penetrates well above the pbl and is likely to impact the distribution and transport of climatically important gas species such as ozone and dimethyl sulfide

deep atmospheric response to the spring kuroshio over the east china sea abstractthe atmospheric response to the spring kuroshio front over the east china sea is investigated using a suite of high resolution satellite data and a regional atmospheric model the atmospheric response appears to extend beyond the marine atmospheric boundary layer with frequent occurrence of cumulus convection in spring quick scatterometer quikscat wind speed shows a clear effect of sea surface temperature sst with high low wind speed observed over the warm cold tongue this in phase relationship between sst and surface wind speed is indicative of sst influence on the atmosphere wind convergence is found on the warmer flank of the kuroshio front accompanied by a narrow rainband the analysis of satellite borne radar measurements indicates that deep convection appears over the kuroshio warm tongue in the spring season with enhanced convective precipitation frequent occurrence of cumulus convection and increased precipitation cloud tops in altitude these deep convective activities

local and remote atmospheric response to tropical instability waves a global view from space a la nina took place in the equatorial pacific in 1999 and strong tropical instability waves tiws developed causing large meanders of a sea surface temperature sst front between the equator and 3 n high resolution satellite measurements are used to describe the variability of sst surface wind velocity column integrated water vapor cloud liquid water and precipitation associated with these strong tiws in 1999 coherent ocean atmosphere patterns emerge in both the pacific and atlantic revealing rich regional characteristics in the far eastern pacific southeasterly trades strengthen weaken over positive negative sst anomalies apparently due to enhanced reduced mixing with high speed winds aloft in the central pacific we find evidence that sst induced sea level pressure changes also contribute substantially to wind fluctuations similar sst wind covariability also exists in the southern hemisphere along 2 s but the wind variability induced by unit sst anomaly is much larger than that north of the equator in the central pacific where the equatorial front is broad the northern sst pattern has a large meridional scale and reaches as far north as 6 n further to the north in the intertropical convergence zone itcz where local sst anomalies are small significant variability is found in clouds and precipitation which is further correlated with surface wind convergence in the atlantic tiw signals in sst are strongly trapped near the equator but they induce significant remote response in the itcz which takes a more southern position than its pacific counterpart and thus more susceptible to tiw influence

bathymetric effect on the winter sea surface temperature and climate of the yellow and east china seas 1 whether and how the atmosphere reacts to changes in extratropical sea surface temperature sst is under intense debate and this lack of understanding has been a major obstacle in the study of non el nino climate variability using new satellite measurements we detect clear ocean to atmospheric feedback in the yellow and east china yec seas that is triggered by the submerged ocean bottom topography under intense surface cooling in winter water properties are well mixed up to 100 m deep ocean depth thus has a strong influence on sst of the continental shelf leading to a remarkable collocation of warm tongues and deep channels high winds and increased cloudiness are found over these warm tongues one such band of ocean atmospheric co variation meanders through the basin following a deep channel for an amazing distance of 1000 km in addition to these climatic effects the kuroshio front where the warm current meets the much colder shelf water strengthens the growth of storms

northern hemisphere winter atmospheric transient eddy heat fluxes and the gulf stream and kuroshio oyashio extension variability abstractspatial and temporal covariability between the atmospheric transient eddy heat fluxes i e t and q in the northern hemisphere winter january march and the paths of the gulf stream gs kuroshio extension ke and oyashio extension oe are examined based on an atmospheric reanalyses and ocean observations for 1979 2009 for the climatological winter mean the northward heat fluxes by the synoptic 2 8 days transient eddies exhibit canonical storm tracks with their maxima collocated with the gs and ke oe the intraseasonal 8 days 3 months counterpart while having overall similar amplitude shows a spatial pattern with more localized maxima near the major orography and blocking regions lateral heat flux divergence by transient eddies as the sum of the two frequency bands exhibits very close coupling with the exact locations of the ocean fronts linear regression is used to examine the lead lag relationship between interannual changes in the northward heat fluxes by the transient

observed atlantification of the barents sea causes the polar front to limit the expansion of winter sea ice abstractbarents sea water bsw is formed from atlantic water that is cooled through atmospheric heat loss and freshened through seasonal sea ice melt in the eastern barents sea the bsw and fresh

ocean frontal effects on the vertical development of clouds over the western north pacific in situ and satellite observations abstract a suite of shipboard and satellite observations are analyzed and synthesized to investigate the three dimensional structure of clouds and influences from sea surface temperature fronts over the western north pacific sharp transitions are observed across the kuroshio extension ke front in the marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl and its clouds the ocean s influence appears to extend beyond the mabl with higher cloud tops in altitude along the ke front than the surroundings in winter intense turbulent heat release from the ocean takes place on the southern flank of the ke front where the cloud top penetrates above the mabl and reaches the midtroposphere in this band of high cloud tops frequent lightning activity is observed the results of this study suggest a sea level pressure mechanism for which the temperature gradient in the mabl induces strong surface wind convergence on the southern flank of the ke front deepening the clouds there in early summer sea fog frequently occurs on

observations of sst induced perturbations of the wind stress field over the southern ocean on seasonal timescales the surface wind stress response to sea surface temperature sst over the latitude range 308 608 si n the southern ocean is described from the national aeronautics and space administration s quikscat scatterometer observations of wind stress and reynolds analyses of sst during the 2 yr period august 1999 to july 2001 while ocean atmosphere coupling at midlatitudes has previously been documented from several case studies this is the first study to quantify this relation over the entire southern ocean the spatial structures of the surface wind perturbations with wavelengths shorter than 108 latitude by 308 longitude are closely related to persistent spatial variations of the sst field on the same scales the wind stress curl and divergence are shown to be linearly related respectively to the crosswind and downwind components of the sst gradient the curl response has a magnitude only about half that of the divergence response this observed coupling is consistent with the hypothesis that sst modification of marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl stability affects vertical turbulent mixing of momentum inducing perturbations in the surface winds the nonequivalence between the responses of the curl and divergence to the crosswind and downwind sst gradients suggests that secondary circulations in the mabl may also play an important role by producing significant perturbations in the surface wind field near sst fronts that are distinct from the vertical turbulent transfer of momentum the importance of the wind stress curl in driving ekman vertical velocity in the open ocean implies that the coupling between winds and sst may have important feedback effects on upper ocean processes near sst fronts

sst induced surface wind variations over the brazil malvinas confluence satellite and in situ observations abstract the confluence of the brazil malvinas currents maintains strong sea surface temperature sst fronts in the midlatitude southwestern atlantic year round sst effects on near surface stability and surface wind variations are examined in this region using satellite and in situ datasets satellite observations show strong weak surface wind speeds over the warm brazil cold malvinas current a novel feature of this study is the construction of a high resolution surface meteorological dataset that is based on historical ship observations analysis of this new in situ dataset reveals an increased reduced sea air temperature difference over the brazil malvinas current indicating destabilization stabilization in the atmospheric boundary layer these results are consistent with the sst induced vertical mixing mechanism for wind adjustment the sst effect on the near surface atmosphere is observed both in the climatology and on interannual time scales in the brazil malvinas confluence along a zo

regional seasonal and diurnal variations of extreme convection in the south asian region abstract temporal and spatial variations of convection in south asia are analyzed using eight years of tropical rainfall measuring mission trmm precipitation radar pr data and ncep reanalysis fields to identify the most extreme convective features three types of radar echo structures are defined deep convective cores contiguous 3d convective echo 40 dbz extending 10 km in height represent the most vertically penetrative convection wide convective cores contiguous convective 40 dbz echo over a horizontal area 1000 km2 indicate wide regions of intense multicellular convection and broad stratiform regions stratiform echo contiguous over an area 50 000 km2 mark the mesoscale convective systems that have developed the most robust stratiform regions the preferred locations of deep convective cores change markedly from india s east coast in the premonsoon to the western himalayan foothills in the monsoon they form preferentially in the evening and over land as near surface moist flow is cap

on the role of sea surface temperature gradients in forcing low level winds and convergence in the tropics abstract we examine the importance of pressure gradients due to surface temperature gradients to low level p 700 mb flow and convergence in the tropics over time scales 1 month the latter plays a crucial role in determining the distribution of cumulonimbus convection and rainfall our approach is to consider a simple one layer model of the trade cumulus boundary layer wherein surface temperature gradients are mixed vertically consistent with ecmwf analyzed data the top of the layer is taken at 700 mb the influence from higher levels is intentionally suppressed by setting horizontal pressure gradients and frictional stresses to zero at the top of the layer horizontal convergence within the layer is taken up by cumulonimbus mass flux however the development of the cumulonimbus mass flux is associated with a short relaxation time o hr roughly the development time for such convection during this short time horizontal convergence acts to redistribute mass so as to reduce horizontal pressur

the influence of sea surface temperature on surface wind in the eastern equatorial pacific seasonal and interannual variability abstract the climate of the eastern pacific exhibits a pronounced equatorial asymmetry boundary layer air originating in the southern hemisphere trades crosses the equator and flows into the intertropical convergence zone itcz whose southern limit is nearly always located at least 4 to the north of the equator the sea surface temperature sst distribution is characterized by a prominent cold tongue centered 1 s a strong frontal zone centered 2 n and a warm eastward current centered near 5 n the surface wind field exhibits a pronounced horizontal divergence as the air flows northward across the oceanic frontal zone these features vary in strength in response to the annual cycle and the el nino southern oscillation phenomenon the northward cross equatorial surface winds the cold tongue and the frontal zone all tend to be strongest during the cold season july through november during the cold season of the coldest years when the cold tongue is most prominent the cross equatorial flow t

wind feedback mediated by sea ice in the nordic seas air sea interactions play a critical role in the climate system this study investigates wind induced changes in the ocean surface temperature and sea ice cover feeding back onto the atmospheric circulation this interaction was modeled in the nordic seas using a partial coupling method to constrain the ocean with prescribed wind forcing in an otherwise fully coupled earth system model this enabled the evaluation of not only the direct oceanic but also the indirect atmospheric response to idealized forcing scenarios of perturbed winds over the nordic seas the results show that an anticyclonic wind anomaly forcing leads to significant surface cooling in the greenland sea mostly due to anomalous drift of sea ice during winter the cooling reduces the net surface heat flux to the atmosphere and increases sea level pressure the pressure gradients result in anomalous geostrophic southerly winds which locally are comparable both in direction and in velocity to the prescribed forcing anomalies suggesting a positive feedback

spatial patterns and intensity of the surface storm tracks in cmip5 models abstractto improve the understanding of storm tracks and western boundary current wbc interactions surface storm tracks in 12 cmip5 models are examined against era interim all models capture an equatorward displacement toward the wbcs in the locations of the surface storm tracks maxima relative to those at 850 hpa an estimated storm track metric is developed to analyze the location of the surface storm track it shows that the equatorward shift is influenced by both the lower tropospheric instability and the baroclinicity basin scale spatial correlations between models and era interim for the storm tracks near surface stability sst gradient and baroclinicity are calculated to test the ability of the gcms match reanalysis an intermodel comparison of the spatial correlations suggests that differences relative to era interim in the position of the storm track aloft have the strongest influence on differences in the surface storm track position however in the north atlantic biases in the surf

a model for seasonal changes in gps positions and seismic wave speeds due to thermoelastic and hydrologic variations it is known that gps time series contain a seasonal variation that is not due to tectonic motions and it has recently been shown that crustal seismic velocities may also vary seasonally in order to explain these changes a number of hypotheses have been given among which thermoelastic and hydrology induced stresses and strains are leading candidates unfortunately though since a general framework does not exist for understanding such seasonal variations it is currently not possible to quickly evaluate the plausibility of these hypotheses to fill this gap in the literature i generalize a two dimensional thermoelastic strain model to provide an analytic solution for the displacements and wave speed changes due to either thermoelastic stresses or hydrologic loading which consists of poroelastic stresses and purely elastic stresses the thermoelastic model assumes a periodic surface temperature and the hydrologic models similarly assume a periodic near surface water load since all three models are two dimensional and periodic they are expected to only approximate any realistic scenario but the models nonetheless provide a quantitative framework for estimating the effects of thermoelastic and hydrologic variations quantitative comparison between the models and observations is further complicated by the large uncertainty in some of the relevant parameters despite this uncertainty though i find that maximum realistic thermoelastic effects are unlikely to explain a large fraction of the observed annual variation in a typical gps displacement time series or of the observed annual variations in seismic wave speeds in southern california hydrologic loading on the other hand may be able to explain a larger fraction of both the annual variations in displacements and seismic wave speeds neither model is likely to explain all of the seismic wave speed variations inferred from observations however more definitive conclusions cannot be made until the model parameters are better constrained

atmospheric response to a midlatitude sst front alongfront winds abstractsatellite observations and modeling studies show that midlatitude sst fronts influence the marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl and atmospheric circulation here the weather research and forecasting wrf mesoscale model is used to explore the atmospheric response to a midlatitude sst front in an idealized dry two dimensional configuration with a background wind oriented in the alongfront direction the sst front excites an alongfront wind anomaly in the free atmosphere with peak intensity just above the mabl this response is nearly quasigeostrophic in contrast to the inertia gravity wave response seen for cross front background winds the free atmosphere response increases with the background wind in contrast to previously proposed sst frontal mabl models the mabl winds are nearly in ekman balance however a cross front wind develops in the mabl as a result of friction and rotation such that the mabl cross front rossby number e 0 2 the mabl vorticity balance and scaling arguments

the parametrization of surface fluxes in large scale models under free convection this paper investigates the idea of formulating free convection in large scale models as a special case of forced convection in free convection the wind speed in the surface transfer law is related to the velocity of the large eddies in the mixed layer and is proportional to the convection velocity scale the empirical coefficient is estimated with the help of large eddy simulation data by sykes et al 1993 and the resulting formulation is compared with field data by stull 1994 this concept is shown to be applicable to smooth ocean surfaces as well as rough land surfaces it is argued that within this framework free convection is a natural extension of forced convection and only needs a minor modification of traditional transfer laws

numerical study of convection observed during the winter monsoon experiment using a mesoscale two dimensional model abstract a two dimensional version of the pennsylvania state university mesoscale model has been applied to winter monsoon experiment data in order to simulate the diurnally occurring convection observed over the south china sea the domain includes a representation of part of borneo as well as the sea so that the model can simulate the initiation of convection also included in the model are parameterizations of mesoscale ice phase and moisture processes and longwave and shortwave radiation with a diurnal cycle this allows use of the model to test the relative importance of various heating mechanisms to the stratiform cloud deck which typically occupies several hundred kilometers of the domain frank and cohen s cumulus parameterization scheme is employed to represent vital unresolved vertical transports in the convective area the major conclusions are ice phase processes are important in determining the level of maximum large scale heating and vertical motion because there is a strong anvil componen

high resolution satellite measurements of the atmospheric boundary layer response to sst variations along the agulhas return current abstract the marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl response to sea surface temperature sst perturbations with wavelengths shorter than 30 longitude by 10 latitude along the agulhas return current arc is described from the first year of sst and cloud liquid water clw measurements from the advanced microwave scanning radiometer amsr on the earth observing system eos aqua satellite and surface wind stress measurements from the quikscat scatterometer amsr measurements of sst at a resolution of 58 km considerably improves upon a previous analysis that used the reynolds sst analyses which underestimate the short scale sst gradient magnitude over the arc region by more than a factor of 5 the amsr sst data thus provide the first quantitatively accurate depiction of the sst induced mabl response along the arc warm cold sst perturbations produce positive negative wind stress magnitude perturbations leading to short scale perturbations in the wind stress curl and divergence fields that are li

covariations of sea surface temperature and wind over the kuroshio and its extension evidence for ocean to atmosphere feedback abstract satellite microwave measurements are analyzed revealing robust covariability in sea surface temperature sst and wind speed over the kuroshio extension ke east of japan ocean hydrodynamic instabilities cause the ke to meander and result in large sst variations increased reduced wind speeds are found to be associated with warm cold sst anomalies this positive sst wind correlation in ke is confirmed by in situ buoy measurements and is consistent with a vertical shear adjustment mechanism namely an increase in sst reduces the static stability of the near surface atmosphere intensifying the vertical turbulence mixing and bringing fast moving air from aloft to the sea surface south of japan the kuroshio is known to vary between nearshore and offshore paths these paths are very persistent and can last for months to years as the kuroshio shifts its path coherent wind changes are detected from satellite data in particular winds are high south of tokyo when the kuroshio takes the near

north atlantic oscillation effect on interannual variability in winter precipitation over the gulf stream abstractin winter the warm water of the gulf stream anchors a salient precipitation band previous studies suggested a close relationship between the sea surface temperature sst front and the pr

atmospheric manifestation of tropical instability wave observed by quikscat and tropical rain measuring mission observations from two new spaceborne microwave instruments in 1999 clearly reveal the atmospheric manifestation of tropical instability waves north of the pacific equatorial cold tongue a unique zonal temporal band pass filter enables the isolation of the propagating signals and the determination of their phase differences the phase differences between the propagation of wind and sea surface temperature sst signals observed from space and the vertical wind profiles measured from a research ship are consistent with the hypothesis that the coupling between wind and sst is caused by buoyancy instability and mixing which reduces the wind shear in the atmospheric boundary layer the coupling causes higher evaporative cooling over the warm phase and infers a negative thermal feedback

two types of surface wind response to the east china sea kuroshio front abstracteffects of the sea surface temperature sst front along the east china sea kuroshio on sea surface winds at different time scales are investigated in winter and spring the climatological vector wind is strongest on the sst front while the scalar wind speed reaches a maximum on the warm flank of the front and is collocated with the maximum difference between sea surface temperature and surface air temperature sst sat the distinction is due to the change in relative importance of two physical processes of sst wind interaction at different time scales the sst front induced sea surface level pressure slp adjustment sf slp contributes to a strong vector wind above the front on long time scales consistent with the collocation of baroclinicity in the marine boundary layer and corroborated by the similarity between the thermal wind and observed wind shear between 1000 and 850 hpa in contrast the sst modulation of synoptic winds is more evident on the warm flank of the sst front large ther