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A Satellite Study of the Atmospheric Forcing and Response to Moist
Convection over Tropical and Subtropical Oceans
HIROHIKO MASUNAGA
Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan(Manuscript received 6 January 2011, in final form 13 June 2011)
ABSTRACT
Satellite data are analyzed to explore the thermodynamic evolution of tropical and subtropical atmospheresprior and subsequent to moist convection in order to offer an observational test bed for convective adjustment, which is central to the quasi-equilibrium hypothesis. Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)
and Aqua satellite measurements are projected onto a composite temporal sequence over an hourly to daily
time scale by exploiting the temporal gap between the local satellite overpasses, which changes from one day
to another. The atmospheric forcing and response to convection are investigated separately for deep convective and congestus clouds. In the deep tropics, systematic moisture transport from the atmosphericboundary layer (ABL) to the free troposphere is evident in association with deep convection. The quick ABL
ventilation suggests a swift convective adjustment but is preceded by a steady buildup of ABL moisture, which
does not imply continuous adjustment to equilibrium. The evolution of convective available potential energy(CAPE) is controlled not only by the ABL moisture but also largely by a coincident ABL cooling linked witha bipolar anomaly of tropospheric temperature. The ABL moisture and temperature effects together lead toa rapid drop of CAPE for 12 h preceding convection, followed by a restoring phase that emerges as the cool
anomaly recovers for a day or two. When moist convection is brought by congestus clouds with no deep
convection nearby, CAPE gently increases over a period of 1–2 days until congestus occurs and then declines
as slowly, suggestive of no efficient convective adjustment. The subtropical atmosphere shows no sign ofconvective adjustment whether or not vigorous convection is present.

1. Introduction
Moist convection has been long known to be a criticalelement of tropical atmospheric dynamics. Enormous
spatial and temporal gaps lying between convective cloud
cells and atmospheric motions of interest, however, giverise to a challenge to the theories and modeling of thetropical atmosphere. A way to avoid this difficulty is tofilter out individual cumulus clouds from large-scale dynamics, assuming that the neutralizing effect of a cloud
ensemble works quickly against the large-scale forcing,slowly destabilizing the atmosphere. Arakawa andSchubert (1974) explored this idea and argued that a cumulus cloud ensemble may be considered to be in ‘‘quasi
equilibrium’’ (QE) with large-scale forcings. The QE
hypothesis has since been central to a school of cumulus

Corresponding author address: Hirohiko Masunaga, Hydrospheric
Atmospheric Research Center, Nagoya University, F3-1(200) Furocho
Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 458-0015, Japan.
E-mail: masunaga@hyarc.nagoya-u.ac.jp
DOI: 10.1175/JAS-D-11-016.1
Ó 2012 American Meteorological Society

parameterization (Arakawa 2004), and different versionsof QE thinking form the basis for many theories and(semi)analytical modeling of tropical atmospheres (e.g.,
Emanuel et al. 1994; Neelin and Yu 1994; Raymond 1995;
Emanuel 1995; Neelin and Zeng 2000).
While analyses of in situ sounding data generally support the QE assumption (Arakawa and Schubert 1974;
Lord and Arakawa 1980; Lord 1982), it would be beneficial to extend the regional QE testing to the whole tropics
beyond individual field campaigns representing relatively
limited regions and periods of time. Brown and Bretherton(1997), analyzing monthly-mean global datasets of air
temperature and surface humidity, showed that thermodynamic coupling between the atmospheric boundary
layer (ABL) and free troposphere exists but is not as strongas predicted from the strict QE theory. Although the QE
assumption is corroborated by recent work (e.g., Holloway
and Neelin 2007), stochastic deviations from the QE state
are also present in the satellite-observed moisture andtemperature fields, suggesting the need for revisions to the
QE hypothesis as originally postulated (Neelin et al. 2008).

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Efficient convective adjustment may not be expected
where convective clouds do not develop deeply enoughto penetrate the troposphere, as is the case for the subtropics under the influence of a strong trade inversion.
The absence of deep convection, however, does not
immediately mean the lack of convective processes that
could alter large-scale atmospheric states. The QE assumption in its original form was relaxed to some degreeby Raymond (1995) and Emanuel (1995) in ‘‘boundary
layer quasi-equilibrium,’’ where no explicit constraint is
imposed on free-tropospheric thermodynamics. Shallow
cumulus and cumulus congestus, with cloud tops as low
as 2–6 km, are widely observed across tropical andsubtropical oceans (Johnson et al. 1999) and participate
in tropical climate dynamics by ventilating the ABL andmoistening the lower free troposphere (Yanai et al.
1973; Neggers et al. 2007). Growing observational evidence shows that the free-tropospheric moistening
proceeds in phase with the gradual deepening of shallow cumulus from the developing through mature
stages of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) (KemballCook and Weare 2001; Kikuchi and Takayabu 2004;
Kiladis et al. 2005; Masunaga et al. 2006; Benedict andRandall 2007; Masunaga 2009; Katsumata et al. 2009).
Some recent versions of QE theory incorporate themidtropospheric moisture control on the vertical structure of convective heating in the context of convectively
coupled equatorial waves (Khouider and Majda 2006;
Kuang 2008). The QE premise of instant convective
adjustment has yet to be tested against observations
when moist convection is dominated by shallow andcongestus clouds.
A short but finite convective adjustment time tcnv has
important implications for large-scale dynamics. A nonzero adjustment time is incorporated in versions of cumulus parameterization (Betts 1986; Moorthi and Suarez
1992; Zhang and McFarlane 1995), and the impacts ofdelayed convective response on large-scale dynamics
have been theoretically explored (Emanuel 1993; Neelin
and Yu 1994). While convective adjustment time isconsidered as typically an hour or two (Arakawa andSchubert 1974; Betts and Miller 1986), the mesoscaleorganization of convective clouds can further delay theconvective response (Xu et al. 1992). Few observational
studies, however, have paid full attention to the natureof convective adjustment itself. Existing studies observationally verifying the QE hypothesis are based on‘‘indirect’’ testing where mean state temperature andhumidity, with the variability over t cnv unresolved, areexamined to see if they behave as expected from the QE
hypothesis. The present work, in contrast, attempts todirectly trace the evolution of atmospheric states changing over an hourly to daily time scale.

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A technical challenge to such direct testing with global
observations is the limited sampling frequency in satellite measurements. Low earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites
revisit any given location only twice a day or even lessfrequently and thus are unable to resolve any event
varying within half a day. Geostationary satellites, on
the other hand, are excellent in fine temporal sampling
but do not carry sensors capable of measuring air temperature or detecting precipitation beneath a cloudlayer. In this study, an analysis method is devised toovercome this difficulty and statistically delineate how
the atmosphere thermodynamically forces and responds
to convective clouds over a short period of time.
The primary goals of this work are to 1) provide anobservational test bed for convective adjustment basedon global, long-term satellite measurements, 2) explore
deep convective and congestus cloud interactions withlarge-scale atmospheric thermodynamics, and 3) investigate differences between deep tropical and subtropicalatmospheres in their ways of interacting with moist
convection. Sections 2 and 3 describe the datasets andanalysis method, respectively, and the results are presented in section 4. The findings of this paper are summarized and discussed in section 5.

2. Data
The present analysis is based exclusively on satellite
measurements. Deep convective and congestus clouds
are each detected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring
Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) and Visible/
Infrared Scanner (VIRS), while the vertical structure of
air temperature and humidity are profiled by the Aqua
Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/Advanced Microwave Sounder Unit (AMSU). Precipitation from the
Aqua Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for
Earth Observing System (EOS) (AMSR-E) is also analyzed. Each data product is described to some detail inthis section.

a. TRMM PR and VIRSThe TRMM satellite, launched in late 1997, is a sunasynchronous satellite with the local overpass time drifting over a recurrence period of about 23 days (or 46 days
if ascending and descending orbits are separated). The
TRMM PR is a Ku-band (13.8-GHz) radar and the VIRS
is an imager equipped with five channels from visible toinfrared wavelengths (Kummerow et al. 1998). This study,
following Masunaga et al. (2005) and Masunaga andKummerow (2006), uses TRMM PR echo-top heightand VIRS infrared (10.8 mm) brightness temperature Tb
to identify congestus and more vigorous convection separately. The PR echo-top height is the maximum altitude

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of detectable radar echo, where at least three consecutive
bins are required to contain a reflectivity equal to or exceeding 19 dBZ. Simultaneous PR and VIRS measurements are matched on a 1/ 48 grid.
In this paper ‘‘congestus’’ is defined in its broad sense,
consisting of both precipitating shallow cumulus (echotop height , 4 km and Tb . 260 K) and cumulus congestus (echo-top height between 4 and 6 km and Tb .
245 K) as defined by Masunaga et al. (2005). Raining
clouds that develop not much beyond the lower or midtroposphere all fall into the congestus category in thecurrent definition. Nonprecipitating clouds are not included because the TRMM PR is insensitive to cloud
droplets. Deep convective clouds are delineated byecho-top heights higher than 4 km and Tb values colder
than 245 K and potentially contain both organized convective systems (including stratiform rain areas with highcloud tops) and isolated cumulonimbi penetrating to thetropopause. Deep convection in the current definition
corresponds to deep convective and deep stratiform systems combined together in the Masunaga et al. (2005)
terminology.

b. Aqua AIRS/AMSU unit
The Aqua satellite has been operating since mid-2002
in a sun-synchronous orbit with the local overpass timebound between 0130 and 0145 and between 1330 and
1345 local time (LT). The Aqua AIRS is a hyperspectral
infrared sounder measuring atmospheric gas profiles
with an average RMSE, when used in tandem with
the AMSU, of 1 K for tropospheric temperature and
20% for relative humidity near every 1 km in height(Aumann et al. 2003). The cloud contribution to infraredemission from a partially cloudy column is algorithmically cleared within a 3 3 3 array of AIRS pixels(Susskind et al. 2003, 2006). The AIRS/AMSU version 5
level-3 daily product is adopted in this work for examining the vertical structure of air temperature and humidity as well as column-integrated water vapor (CWV).
This product is constructed by projecting qualitycontrolled level-2 estimates onto a 18 3 18 global grid.
Separate satellite overpasses are never averaged together anywhere on the grid, so these temperatureand moisture estimates may be considered as virtually
instantaneous observations.
The AIRS standard pressure levels are 1000, 925, 850,
and 700 hPa for the lowest four levels, followed by every
100 hPa up to 300 hPa and every 50 hPa farther above
to 100 hPa. Air temperature is given at each of theselevels while vapor mixing ratio and relative humidity aredefined as the layer mean within a pair of consecutive
levels. Saturation equivalent potential temperature u*eand virtual temperature are calculated at the standard

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levels. The layer-mean vapor mixing ratio is interpolated to the standard levels when applied to the virtual
temperature estimate. Virtual temperature will be required later for computing convective available potential energy (CAPE; see section 3a). The vapor mixing
ratio in the lowest layer (i.e., the 1000–925-hPa mean) is
extrapolated down to the surface vapor mixing ratio qy,s.
The extrapolation is carried out using a simple mixedlayer model as described in appendix A. Surface
equivalent potential temperature, ue,s, and CAPE are
calculated using qy,s along with surface air temperatureand pressure as provided by the AIRS/AMSU product.
The AIRS/AMSU unit is denoted simply as the AIRS in
the remainder of the paper.

c. Aqua AMSR-E
The Aqua AMSR-E is a conically scanning microwave
radiometer equipped with 12 channels at 6 frequencies
ranging from 6.9 to 89 GHz. The AIRS and AMSR-E
are onboard the same platform and make virtually simultaneous observations except for a minor temporal
offset due to the difference in scan geometry. Precipitation estimate from the AMSR-E is provided in adaily gridded product constructed with the Goddard
Profiling algorithm (GPROF) (Kummerow et al. 2001).
AMSR-E precipitation, when composited against the
TRMM (section 3b), is analyzed for the purpose of illustrating the development and decline of convective
activity as a reference to the associated thermodynamic
variation as observed by the AIRS. AMSR-E data
collocated with an invalid AIRS measurement are excluded from the analysis so that the sampling uniformity is assured.

d. Study period and regions
All the datasets described above are collected for 88
months from September 2002 to December 2009. Both
TRMM and Aqua observations are available during thisperiod except for occasional interruptions due to temporary sensor shutoffs. Periods of time when PR, VIRS,
or AIRS data are missing are excluded from the analysis.
Eight study regions over tropical and subtropical oceans
are of current interest as defined in Table 1 and Fig. 1. As
shown in Table 1, three of these regions are collectively
designated as the deep tropics and another three as thesubtropics for later convenience. Section 4a provides thereasoning for the choice of deep tropical and subtropicalregions.
All AIRS and AMSR-E parameters are analyzed on a‘‘large-scale’’ grid of 18 3 18 resolution, so that the atmospheric states analyzed represent horizontal means overa roughly 100 3 100 km2 area. Each large-scale grid box
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MASUNAGATABLE 1. Study regions. Landmasses included in the specified longitude and latitude ranges, if any, are excluded. The frequency of deep
convective and congestus occurrences is listed in the rightmost two columns. Congestus occurrence is counted only where no deep
convection coexists, while the total (unconditional) occurrence is given in parenthesis for reference.
RegionAcronym

Tropical western PacificTropical eastern PacificTropical Indian Ocean
Tropical Atlantic Ocean
Southeastern PacificNortheastern PacificSoutheastern Atlantic Ocean
Northeastern Atlantic Ocean
Deep tropics
Subtropics

TWP
TEP
TIO
TAO
SEP
NEP
SAO
NAO
—
—

Longitudes

1408E–1808
58S–58N
1308–908W
08–108N
508–908E
58S–58N
508–108W
08–108N
1208–808W
258–158S
1608–1208W
158–258N
308W–108E
258–158S
608–208W
158–258N
TWP 1 TIO 1 TAO
SEP 1 NEP 1 SAO

measurements. The deep convective or congestus occurrence, reported at 18 3 18 pixels where one or more
subgrid TRMM pixel(s) is identified as deep convection
or congestus, defines the base point for the composite
analysis described later in section 3b. Repeating thesame analysis with a 38 3 38 large-scale grid leads toa reduction in the amplitude of atmospheric variability
but does not qualitatively alter the results presented inthis paper (not shown).

3. Analysis method
a. CAPECAPE is calculated from AIRS measurements as
ð LFC
LNB

(Ty,p 2 Ty )Rd dlnp,

Latitudes(1)

where LFC and LNB stand for the levels of free convection and neutral buoyancy, p denotes pressurelevels, Rd is the gas constant for dry air, and Ty and Ty,p
are the virtual temperature of ambient air and an undiluted ascending air parcel, respectively. Condensate
loading and the latent heat from freezing are not taken
into account, so that the current estimate of CAPE is

Deep (%)

Congestus (%)

5.00
1.95
3.10
2.85
0.09
0.32
0.07
0.52
3.64
0.16

2.01 (2.68)
1.51 (1.88)
1.62 (2.10)
1.73 (2.31)
0.61 (0.63)
0.52 (0.58)
0.47 (0.49)
0.90 (0.99)
1.79 (2.36)
0.53 (0.57)

a qualitative measure of conditional instability rather
than the precise quantification of buoyancy. The levelof free convection (LFC) is determined assuming thatthe air parcel originates from the surface. To fill invertical gaps among the standard pressure levels, AIRS
temperature and vapor mixing ratio (and thus Ty) arelinearly interpolated to every 1 hPa across the standard levels. The parcel virtual temperature is also
computed at the same 1-hPa resolution so that LFC and
LNB are each determined at the interpolated levels
where Ty,p meets Ty. The vertical integration in (1) isthen carried out numerically by 1-hPa intervals to obtain CAPE. In a conditionally stable atmosphere where
LFC is indefinable, CAPE is set to zero.
CAPE estimated for an undiluted air parcel is only an
idealized measure of instability since the entrainmentof dry free-tropospheric air could substantially reduce
CAPE (Zhang 2009). Nevertheless, CAPE for an undiluted air parcel would remain useful in a qualitative
sense unless the entrainment rate systematically varies
with time to the extent that the reduced buoyancy due toentrainment completely alters the overall evolution of
undiluted CAPE over a time scale of present interest.
The potential effect of entrainment on the main conclusions of this work would need to be carefully examined in a future investigation.

FIG. 1. Study regions. See Table 1 for acronyms.

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b. Composite analysis
A main interest of the current work lies in the temporal
evolution of large-scale atmospheric states associatedwith the development of deep convective and congestus
clouds. Although the orbital configuration of LEO satellites makes it difficult to continuously monitor quickly
changing atmospheres, the temporal sampling issue may
be circumvented statistically by compositing a large
number of snapshots in the way described as follows.
On a day when the TRMM happens to observe deep
convection at a certain location, the Aqua satellite overpasses the same location some hours earlier or later than
the TRMM observation. This time difference between
TRMM and Aqua observations varies from one day toanother since the local overpass time drifts over time for
the TRMM whereas it is fixed for the Aqua (Fig. 2a).
Every time when the TRMM detects deep convection,
AIRS overpasses at that location are sought within
6120-h window and are time stamped. AIRS temperature and humidity profiles collected in this way are accumulated over a long period of time (.7 yr) and thenaveraged together at every hour of the TRMM–Aquatime difference. This procedure yields a continuous composite sequence as a function of time elapsed before andafter the deep convective development (Fig. 2b). For
temperature and humidity anomalies computed in thecomposite space, the background field is defined as the
temporal average over the first and last 24 h combined(i.e., 2120 # t # 297 h and 197 # t # 1120 h). The t test
is applied to the composite anomaly fields against the null
hypothesis that finite anomaly is absent, and only statistically significant data exceeding the 95% level are plotted.
Errors in the composite space are analyzed in appendix B.
The same technique applies also to congestus bycompositing AIRS observations with respect to TRMMdetected congestus unaccompanied by deep convection.
This additional constraint to preclude deep convection,
unlike the deep convective case where no extra restriction is imposed, is aimed at isolating the contribution ofcongestus from that of coexisting deep convection. Deep
convection is often surrounded by congestus clouds
in mature convective systems, so that active deep convection, if not screened out, could largely dominate thecongestus effect. The rightmost two columns in Table 1
imply that deep convection exists nearby for 20%–25% of
the time when congestus is observed in the deep tropics.
This percentage is much smaller in the subtropics.
Given that the satellite overpass time is confined within
67 min around 0137 LT for Aqua and is accurately
measured on an instantaneous basis for the TRMM, thecomposite time series may capture hour-to-hour changes
in air temperature and humidity as well as day-to-day

FIG. 2. A schematic outlining the composite analysis. (a) TRMM
and Aqua observations on individual days. (b) The same observations projected onto the composite plot.

variability. This high temporal resolution is a unique advantage of utilizing multiple satellites together and effectively bypasses the limitations of individual satellites. Some
previous studies have explored similar analysis techniques,combining an LEO satellite with geostationary or multisatellite infrared data (Kondo et al. 2006; Mapes et al. 2009)or with a 3-hourly global rainfall dataset (Zelinka andHartmann 2009). The current strategy, focusing on two
LEO satellites with different orbital configurations, fully
exploits the capability of state-of-the-art LEO instruments such as the PR and AIRS. The composite timeseries is potentially smeared over a time of convective
system life cycle, but in practice this does not limit theutility of the analysis as will be discussed in section 4b.

4. Results
Analysis results are presented in this section. The regional climatology of atmospheric states is examined first,
and findings from the composite analysis follow next.

a. Regional climatology
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FIG. 3. The April climatologies of u*e (solid) and ue,s (dashed) for selected regions: (a) tropical western Pacific and(b) northeastern Pacific.

oceans. The regional thermodynamic characteristics of theatmosphere are differentiated in terms of a combination ofue,s and u*e . Two contrasting examples are shown in Fig. 3.
In the tropical western Pacific (TWP; Fig. 3a), the domain
with u*e , ue,s in the middle troposphere indicates that theatmosphere is conditionally unstable, or possibly virtually
neutral (Xu and Emanuel 1989), as is typical of the deep
tropics. On the other hand, u*e stays higher than ue,s particularly above 900 hPa in the northeastern Pacific (NEP;

Fig. 3b), suggestive of a stable condition where the ABL iscapped by the trade inversion as is often the case oversubtropical oceans.
Figure 4 plots ue,s 2 u*e as a rough measure of buoyancy for all the eight study regions and four separate
months. The thermodynamic characteristics are quite
separable at least for January and April, where TWP
and the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO), tropical Atlantic(TAO), and tropical eastern Pacific (TEP) are found to

FIG. 4. Monthly climatologies of ue, s 2 u*e for all the study regions: (top left) January, (top right) April, (bottom left)
July, and (bottom right) October. Different lines indicate different regions as labeled in (a) and are highlighted in red
for the deep tropics, in blue for the subtropics, and in light red/blue for others.

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FIG. 5. The temporal sequence of CAPE in deep tropical regions
composited with respect to (a) deep convective clouds and (b)congestus clouds. Different lines show different regions as labeledin (a).

be conditionally unstable and the other four regions staystable. Table 1 indicates a close tie between dominant
cloud types and stability; that is, deep convection predominates over congestus in the frequency of occurrence
for the conditionally unstable regions while the inequality
reverses for the stable areas. This regional contrast remains through the rest of the year except for TEP and thenortheastern Atlantic Ocean (NAO), each of which migrates toward a more neutral or weakly stable state
during July and October. These two regions with overwhelming seasonality are not analyzed in the remainderof the paper. The other six regions are seasonally consistent and may be safely considered as either deep tropicalor subtropical representatives: TWP, TIO, and TAO for
the deep tropics and NEP, the southeastern Pacific (SEP),
and southeastern Atlantic Ocean (SAO) for the subtropics. The deep tropical regions are investigated first.

b. Deep tropics composite
Figure 5a shows the composite temporal sequence of
CAPE over 6120 h around the deep convective occurrence for the three deep tropical regions. CAPE varies
in magnitude from one region to another, with TWP
highest and TAO lowest, but is consistent in the way itchanges with time. CAPE stays nearly constant, aside
from noisy fluctuations, until about a half day before thedeep convective development (t ’ 212 h) when CAPE
begins to drop sharply by 400–500 J kg21 to the minimum at t 5 0. Then CAPE is gently restored as timeproceeds to a level slightly lower than it initially was.
When composited with respect to congestus (Fig. 5b), in
contrast, CAPE gradually increases with time by amodest amount (;200 J kg21) toward t 5 0 and thenslowly declines back to the original level. The increase

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and decrease in CAPE each take a day or two tocomplete. Note that deep tropical sounding is unstable
most of the time and therefore a vast majority of individual soundings sampled for the composite plot havea finite CAPE. The effect of stable soundings (i.e., zero
CAPE) on the composite CAPE will be discussed laterin section 4d in comparison with the subtropical composite analysis.
To isolate key processes responsible for these contrasting behaviors of CAPE, humidity and air temperature
projected into the composite space are investigated.
The three deep tropical regions are combined together
from now on, since the evolution of CAPE is found to
be coherent across the regions studied. Figure 6 shows
the composite moisture profile. The relative humidity
anomaly systematically varies with time when composited with respect to deep convection (Fig. 6a). The whole
free troposphere moistens toward the peak of deep convection (t 5 0) and subsequently dries at a slower pace,
not precisely in phase across different altitudes. The
relative humidity anomaly is largest in the lower freetroposphere (800–700 hPa) right at and slightly prior to
the deep convective occurrence, immediately followed
by a prominent upper-tropospheric humidity maximum
at 400–300 hPa lingering for a day or two. Mapes et al.
(2006) and Zelinka and Hartmann (2009) found a very
similar feature in their analyses and attributed it to thepresence of highly organized convective systems. The
deepening of moist air associated with convective development is visible in vapor mixing ratio anomaly aswell (Fig. 6b). The peak in vapor mixing ratio stays
relatively low in altitude compared to the relative humidity field, suggesting that the upper-troposphericrelative humidity maximum should be partly owing to
the upward decrease of tropospheric temperature andthus of the saturation vapor mixing ratio. The vapor
mixing ratio anomaly clearly captures an ABL drying
immediately after convection.
Surface vapor mixing ratio (blue in Fig. 6c) gradually
increases with time until it abruptly drops at t 5 0, while
column water vapor (red in Fig. 6c) does not fall off as
swiftly as qy,s but only slowly declines. These results
together imply the quick ventilation of ABL moistureand a compensating free-tropospheric moistening (i.e.,the vertical moisture transport from the ABL to thefree troposphere associated with deep convection).
The ABL ventilation time scale as inferred from thedropoff in qy,s reads no more than a few hours, comparable to the conventional estimate of t cnv. The ABL
ventilation therefore may be thought of as a result of‘‘convective adjustment’’ although a continuous adjustment to equilibrium appears to be hampered by thepreceding buildup of ABL moisture.

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FIG. 6. The temporal sequence of (a) relative humidity anomaly (%), (b) vapor mixing ratio anomaly (g kg21), and (c) column water
vapor (kg m22; red, labeled on the left axis) and surface vapor mixing ratio (g kg21; blue, labeled on the right axis), all composited withrespect to deep tropical deep convection. The background level against which the anomaly field is defined in (a) and (b) is the temporal
average over the first and last 24 h combined. Domains with statistical significance levels lower than 95% are blanked out in (a) and (b).
(d)–f) As in (a)–(c), but composited with respect to deep tropical congestus.

When composited with respect to congestus (Figs. 6d,e),
the moist anomaly is mostly confined to the lower freetroposphere with no sign of upper-tropospheric moistening as found in association with deep convection. The
temporal change of CWV associated with congestus isqualitatively very similar to the deep convective case,whereas qy,s exhibits no sharp drop at t 5 0 but varies
quite in phase with CWV. It follows that isolated congestus alone has a relatively limited capability of ABL
ventilation and free-tropospheric moistening.
We can infer from the potential temperature difference or ue,s 2 u*e (cf. Fig. 4) that the atmosphere remains
conditionally unstable throughout the 240-h sequence(Figs. 7a,d). The temperature anomaly field in the deep
convection composite (Fig. 7b), on the other hand, showsa notable variation with time. A cool anomaly develops
in the lower troposphere from a half day before theconvection through a day or two after, accompanied
almost 1808 out of phase by a warm anomaly in the mid
to upper troposphere. A similar bipolar structure (witha minor third pole near the tropopause) in temperature
anomaly has been documented in the literature to appear in association with mesoscale convective systems(Sherwood and Wahrlich 1999; Mapes et al. 2006) andeasterly waves (Reed and Recker 1971). The evolutionof CAPE exhibits, as we have seen in Fig. 5, a rapid
falloff and a slow restoration with the minimum in between at t 5 0 (red in Fig. 7c). CAPE eventually settles
at 1800–1900 J kg21, slightly lower than the initial levelof 1900–2000 J kg21. The t test reveals that the difference between the initial and final CAPEs, when averaged over 24 h at each end, is statistically significant(.99%) in the deep tropical deep convective case. Thisdissipation of CAPE might be considered as the net
effect of deep convection on large-scale atmospheric
thermodynamics.
Composite rainfall sharply rises from t 5 212 through
0 h, nearly in synchronization with the drop of CAPE,
and then suddenly falls to the background level of about
2 mm day21 (blue in Fig. 7c). The composite rainfall
peak could be smeared to the degree imposed by the
lifetime of convective systems, since the current compositing technique does not pinpoint the peak or any
particular stage of the convective life cycle. Although
this could challenge the performance of the composite
analysis, the sharp cutoff in composite rainfall at t 50 appears to suggest that the current analysis has theability to capture changes as brief as a few hours when

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FIG. 7. The temporal sequence of (a) ue, s 2 u*e (K), (b) air temperature anomaly (K), and (c) CAPE (J kg21; (red, labeled on the left axis)
and rainfall rate (mm day21; blue, labeled on the right axis), all composited with respect to deep tropical deep convection. Domains withstatistical significance levels lower than 95% are blanked out in (b). (d)–(f) As in (a)–(c), but composited with respect to deep tropicalcongestus.

they occur. The peak value of about 15 mm day21 would
be even higher if all AMSR-E pixels were included
without being screened where AIRS estimates are missing, since heavily raining grid boxes are often devoid of
AIRS measurements (see appendix B). It should be
noted, therefore, that the composite plots from the current analysis somewhat underrepresent the actual variability because of this sampling bias. The rainfall peak is
about 4 mm day21 in the congestus composite. No thermodynamic parameters, including qy,s and CAPE, vary as
quickly as congestus rainfall, suggesting that the evolution of thermodynamic state is driven primarily by dry
processes for congestus.

c. Factors controlling CAPE
It has been seen that CAPE has a restoring phasefollowing the rapid decay concurrent with the deep
convective development. Individual factors responsible
for CAPE are investigated further in order to physicallyinterpret the observed behavior. CAPE for an undiluted
air parcel is controlled in theory by surface air temperature, surface vapor mixing ratio, and air temperature
as a function of height. The contribution of freetropospheric moisture exists through the humidity termin virtual temperature but is very minor in magnitude

compared to the other factors. Free-tropospheric humidity would be important when the entrainment of
ambient dry air is taken into account but is not discussed
in the present work.
The strategy here is to compute synthetic CAPE withthe underlying parameters perturbed or fixed artificially.
One of the parameters (e.g., qy,s) is allowed to vary overtime with all others fixed, and the parameter to be perturbed is switched from one experiment to another. In
the ‘‘TBL perturbed’’ experiment, for example, ABL
temperature TBL is as observed in the composite space
while humidity and free-tropospheric temperature
are fixed at the background level. Similarly, ‘‘qy,s
perturbed’’ and ‘‘TFT perturbed’’ experiments are
conducted so that the impacts of surface moisture andfree-tropospheric temperature TFT, respectively, on CAPE
are individually isolated. Here the ABL is defined aspressure levels at and below 925 hPa, and all other levels
above are collectively considered as the free troposphere. The background level in the composite space isdefined as the temporal average over the first and last
24 h combined in the same way as done earlier forcomputing anomaly fields. A control experiment iscarried out with all the underlying parameters perturbed
simultaneously.

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dissipation of surface moisture, counteracted to a limited extent by ABL cooling.
In contrast to the qy,s and TBL perturbed experiments,
the TFT perturbed experiment shows no evidence ofmodulating CAPE for either deep convection or congestus. The finding that the ABL temperature andmoisture primarily control CAPE is consistent withearlier studies (Zhang 2003; Donner and Phillips 2003).
It is noted that while the whole layer below 700 hPa
containing both the ABL and lower free troposphere
exhibits a coherent cool anomaly in association withdeep convection (Fig. 7b), it is the ABL temperaturethat dominates CAPE.
FIG. 8. The temporal sequence of synthetic CAPE (J kg21)
composited with respect to (a) deep tropical deep convection and(b) deep tropical congestus. The control (solid), TBL perturbed(dashed), TFT perturbed (dotted), and qy,s perturbed (dotted–
dashed) experiments are shown. See text for a detailed descriptionof each experiment.

Figure 8 shows different experiments of synthetic
CAPE. The control run reasonably captures the overall
observed behavior, although it is not guaranteed toprecisely reproduce the observations (Figs. 7c,f) because
the synthetic CAPE is computed with the composite T
and qy instead of (as done for the observation) raw
soundings to evaluate instantaneous CAPE before averaging. Other experiments are qualitatively different
from the control. For the deep convection composite(Fig. 8a), the qy,s perturbed experiment shows no restoring phase following convection: the accumulated
CAPE is quickly released out at the time when deep
convection develops. The restoring phase is, as seenfrom the TBL perturbed experiment, entirely ascribedto ABL temperature during the course of temperature
recovery from the cool anomaly coincident with convection (Fig. 7b). The rapid drop of CAPE for half a day
preceding convection, on the other hand, arises from the
combined effects of ABL cooling and ventilation. The
control run initially exhibits a subtle increase in CAPE
closely following the qy,s perturbed run, but it begins toshow a departure about 36 h before convection and thendramatically decreases until it eventually joins the TBL
perturbed experiment at t 5 0.
The control experiment for the congestus composite(Fig. 8b) is entirely overlapped by the qy,s perturbed
experiment except for a small deviation around t 5 0.
This deviation is presumably due to ABL temperature
anomaly as suggested by a small dip in the TBL perturbed experiment. It is inferred that the increase anddecrease of CAPE associated with deep tropical congestus primarily result from the accumulation andd. Subtropics composite
Another composite analysis as performed for the deep
tropics is applied to the three subtropical regions combined. The composite moisture fields shown in Fig. 9clearly imply a free-tropospheric moistening associatedwith the convective development. The humidity modulation for deep convection (Figs. 9a–c) is even more outstanding than observed for the deep tropics (Figs. 6a–c)
because the free troposphere in its background state ismuch drier in the subtropics. The moisture accumulation in the congestus composite is visible in the freetropospheric relative humidity and vapor mixing ratio(Figs. 9d,e) but is as subtle as background diurnal modulation in CWV and qy,s (Fig. 9f).
The evolution of CAPE associated with subtropicaldeep convection (Fig. 10c) is quite different from thedeep tropical case. CAPE slowly but drastically increases from the background level of about 300 J kg21
until it reaches as high as 1000 J kg21, and then gradually decays back to the background level. Deep convective rainfall sharply rises and falls within 612 h(Fig. 10c), accompanied by a momentary destabilizationof the atmosphere as inferred from ue,s 2 u*e (Fig. 10a).
The evolution of CAPE, somewhat analogous to thedeep tropical congestus case but having a much larger
amplitude, extends well beyond the duration of rainfall,and hence moist convection is more of a passive response than an adjusting force to the large-scale environment. The composite temperature exhibits a striking
cool anomaly in the free troposphere lasting 5 days from
260 through 160 h (Fig. 10b). A weaker but persistentcool anomaly is also observed in association with congestus (Fig. 10e). CAPE hardly varies with the congestus
development (Fig. 10f).
Two caveats need to be mentioned. First, the frequency of deep convective occurrence is only 0.16% in
the subtropics, more than 20 times lower than in the
deep tropics (Table 1). The drastic moistening of thefree troposphere as seen above does occur from time to160

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FIG. 9. As in Fig. 6, but for the subtropics.

time but probably not so frequently as to exert a significant long-term influence on the environment. Second,the evolution of subtropical CAPE as seen in Fig. 10
requires a careful interpretation. CAPE appears to start
increasing as early as 36 h before deep convection develops, while it is not until 212 h that ue, s 2 u*e gains
a positive section in the middle troposphere so LFC isdefinable. Given that CAPE must vanish when LFC isindefinable, the gradual enhancement of CAPE for t ,212 h does not necessarily imply a continuous destabilization on an event-by-event basis. The percentage of
unstable sounding or nonzero CAPE is depicted asa function of composite time in Fig. 11a. The percentage
is consistently higher than 95% in the deep tropics, indicating that deep tropical soundings stay unstable mostof the time. The deep tropical composite therefore consists of a relatively homogeneous set of soundings having
a finite CAPE. In the subtropics, on the other hand, thepercentage of nonzero CAPE is much lower and varies
over time in a way similar to the composite CAPE itself
shown in Fig. 10. The subtropical CAPE composited
exclusively from unstable soundings (Fig. 11b) indeed
exhibits a similar evolution to Fig. 10c but with somewhat
higher values overall. The composite subtropical CAPE
should be thus interpreted to some extent as a stochastic
ensemble of zero and nonzero CAPEs with their relative
fractions changing with time, unlike the deep tropics casewhere CAPE is finite most of the time.

5. Summary and discussion
The large-scale forcing and response of tropical andsubtropical atmospheres to moist convection are explored in this paper. The main goal is to provide anobservational assessment of the key assumption underlying the QE hypothesis that convective adjustment
takes place quickly and efficiently. To this end, TRMM
and Aqua satellite data are analyzed together to study
the evolution of composite temperature and humidity
fields on an hourly basis before and after convection
occurs, exploiting the fact that the temporal interval
between the TRMM and Aqua overpasses changes fromone orbit to another.
In the deep tropics, a systematic moisture transport
from the ABL to the free troposphere is clearly observed in association with deep convection. The vertical
moisture transport is likely to be promoted by the ABL
ventilation due to deep convection when it occurs, while
free-tropospheric moistening begins somewhat earlier
than the deep convective development. The latter factappears to be consistent with another picture, namelythat free-tropospheric humidity exerts a strong control
on the onset of precipitation, as discussed in the literature (e.g., Sherwood 1999; Raymond 2000; Bretherton
et al. 2004; Raymond et al. 2007). When the effect of
ABL moisture is singled out among the factors controlling CAPE (i.e., the qy,s perturbed experiment),

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FIG. 10. As in Fig. 7, but for the subtropics.

CAPE is found to steadily accumulate as the ABL
gradually moistens until it drops back sharply (for a few
hours) at the time when the ABL is abruptly ventilated.
The quick ABL ventilation suggests a swift convective
adjustment in action, while the prior accumulationof CAPE does not imply continuous adjustment toequilibrium.
The actual evolution of CAPE exhibits a somewhat
unexpected behavior as ABL temperature comes intoplay. A cool anomaly that emerges in the ABL and lower
troposphere grows over a short period of time (;12 h) as
deep convection develops. This cool anomaly reduces
CAPE, and a restoring phase of CAPE follows as the cool
anomaly diminishes after deep convection shuts off.
A plausible origin of the lower-tropospheric (including
ABL) cooling is the adiabatic cooling due to a large-scaleascent, perhaps augmented by the evaporative cooling instratiform rain. One might expect that, in the mid- toupper troposphere, large-scale adiabatic cooling can beoffset by convective heating (or apparent heating, Q1),
when the Q1 profile is top-heavy as is typical for tropicalorganized convective systems (Yanai et al. 1973; Houze
1982; Johnson 1984). A corresponding warm anomaly is
indeed observed in the 700–300-hPa layer in synchronization with the lower-tropospheric cooling. Raymondand Sessions (2007) argued, based on local moist entropy
budget, that such a bipolar temperature anomaly would
have an effect of intensifying rainfall.

It is tempting to speculate that this thermodynamic
response of the atmosphere might serve as a forcing
mechanism for inertio-gravity waves of a relevant oscillatory period. Given that the temperature anomaly
lasts approximately 612 h around the deep convective
occurrence, a 2-day mode would be preferentially excited.

FIG. 11. (a) The percentage of unstable sounding (CAPE . 0)
sampled for the composite plot: deep tropical deep convection(black solid), deep tropical congestus (gray solid), subtropical deep
convection (black dashed), and subtropical congestus (graydashed). (b) Subtropical CAPE composited exclusively from unstable soundings for deep convection (black dashed) and congestus(gray dashed).

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FIG. 12. Schematic of large-scale forcing and convective adjustment in terms of tropospherictemperature lapse rate (abscissa) and ABL relative humidity (ordinate) as devised by Arakawa(2004). Dashed arrow denotes large-scale forcing, solid arrow is convective adjustment, andwavy arrow represents large-scale response. The gray line represents the equilibrium solution.
(a) Original QE hypothesis illustrated by Arakawa (2004). (b) As inferred from the present
analysis for the deep tropics. A large-scale response coincides with convective adjustment
where the solid and wavy arrows are superposed together, in which case the time scale is limitedby the (slower) large-scale response (;12 h). (c) As in (b), but for congestus instead of deep
convection.

The quasi-2-day wave documented in the literature(Takayabu et al. 1996; Haertel and Johnson 1998; Haertel
and Kiladis 2004) is actually known to exhibit a similar
temperature structure in its peak phase. Haertel et al.
(2008) showed that a temperature dipole in the 2-day
wave is accounted for by the second and third verticalmode projection of convective heating, which is considered to be excited by stratiform and congestus precipitation. The lower-tropospheric cooling should be
dynamically connected with the stratiform cooling in order for convectively coupled waves to survive moist convective damping (Mapes 2000). The effects of convective
heating from various types of clouds will be explored infuture work in relevance to the equatorial wave dynamics.
The evolution of CAPE associated with deep tropicalcongestus is essentially different from the deep convective case outlined above. CAPE slowly increases
with time as ABL moisture accumulates over a period of
about 24–48 h until congestus clouds develop, and thendecays as slowly back to the initial level. Neggers et al.
(2007) argued that shallow cumulus typically takes about
105 s to ventilate the ABL, consistent with the current
result inferred from the congestus composite. Temperature perturbation is so subtle in the congestus case that
ABL moisture is almost solely responsible for the CAPE
variability. Congestus enhances the free-tropospherichumidity to some extent, although the moistening effectis less pronounced in both magnitude and depth compared to the deep convective case.
Present findings are summarized below in the context
of the large-scale processes and convective adjustmentin the deep tropics. Among a variety of different
QE formulations considered to date, a schematic representation devised by Arakawa (2004) is adopted
here as the test bed, where the atmospheric state is
described in terms of boundary layer humidity andtropospheric temperature lapse rate (Fig. 12). Thisparticular representation is meant to address a rangeof QE versions including the earliest formulation by
Arakawa and Schubert (1974) and some influential
QE variants as explored by Betts (1986) and Emanuelet al. (1994). The original QE hypothesis (Fig. 12a)
postulates that a departure from the equilibrium state
forced by large-scale processes is immediately pulledback to equilibrium by convective adjustment. The
observation (Fig. 12b), on the other hand, implies thata quick reduction of ABL humidity (ordinate) is
concurrent with a relatively slow (;12 h) decline of the
ABL temperature. This ABL cooling is linked with theatmospheric response comprising a lower-troposphericcooling and upper-tropospheric warming, leading toa momentary decrease in temperature lapse rate (abscissa in Fig. 12). The lapse rate decrease temporarily
makes the atmosphere enter the stable regime across theequilibrium line, while an equilibrium state is restored
within a day or two as the lapse rate anomaly disappears.
As such, the atmosphere acts somewhat like a damping
oscillation rather than a monotonic damping. The idealized forms of the QE hypothesis in which the whole
troposphere instantly (or within a few hours at most)adjusts itself toward an equilibrium state are not fully
supported by the observation.

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The congestus development accompanies systematic
prior moistening and subsequent drying. These processes take place over a period of 24 h or even longer(Fig. 12c), while congestus rainfall shuts off within about
12 h. The ABL drying process is not a swift ventilation
as found for deep convective but persists long afterconvection stops working. It is thus less clear than in the
deep convective case that rapid convective adjustment is
at work in association with congestus clouds. The QE
hypothesis would again not offer a valid closure principle during times when moist convection is driven bycongestus alone.
There are schools of QE thinking that are not conceptualized by Fig. 12. The most notable among themis the boundary layer quasi-equilibrium (BLQ), where
surface heat fluxes are assumed to be thermodynamically in balance with convective downdraft (Raymond
1995; Emanuel 1995). BLQ places no explicit constraint
on the free troposphere, so that the anomalous behaviorof temperature lapse rate (Fig. 12b) does not rule out
BLQ. The current composite analysis, however, showsa prior buildup of ABL moisture and an ABL coolingpersisting for a day or two after convection ceases, notprecisely in line with BLQ that has been argued to holdon time scales of 1/2–1 day (Raymond 1995). A further
assessment of BLQ requires a careful heat budget
analysis involving surface fluxes and convective downdraft and should be done elsewhere.
The atmosphere is climatologically so stable in thesubtropics that conditional neutrality as presupposed by
the QE hypothesis is scarcely achieved. Deep convection in the subtropical regions is less frequent by anorder of magnitude than in the deep tropics and incapable of retaining moist neutrality against stabilizing
large-scale forcings. In rare occasions when deep convection occurs, however, the subtropical atmosphere isdestabilized for a short period of time (;24 h), precededby the (stochastic) accumulation of CAPE and succeeded by the dissipation. This behavior implies nosign of convective adjustment. It is found that a freetropospheric cool anomaly persists for a period wellbeyond the duration of rainfall when convection occurs
in the subtropics. Origins of the persistent cool anomaly
are unknown, while it possibly suggests that external
disturbances such as upper-tropospheric troughs may
often accompany the deep convective development in thesubtropics. Subtropical deep convection is perhaps moreof a passive player responding to large-scale forcings thana key ingredient actively controlling the atmospheric
thermodynamics.
The present paper, as the first attempt to apply a newcomposite analysis method to TRMM and Aqua measurements, is focused intentionally on contrasting

extreme cases of deep convection and congestus. In reality, the spectrum of tropical convective clouds is quite
rich and variable, having different types of clouds mixed
together with different proportions. Major modes of thetropical oscillations including the MJO are known toaccompany a systematic shift in the convective cloud
spectrum from the shallow cumulus dominated phaseto the deep convective stage (e.g., Mapes et al. 2006),
which can be crucial for dynamically driving and maintaining the waves (Khouider and Majda 2006; Kuang
2008; Haertel et al. 2008). The role of convective adjustment potentially changes in the course of the oscillation and, if so, the phase dependence of convective
adjustment time might deserve attention as an elementof the tropical wave dynamics. This study is also confined to the regions well representative of either the
deep tropics or subtropics. There are border regions of
their own climatological importance located in between
the deep tropics and subtropics (Lintner and Neelin2007). Future work on the lines of the present analysis
will be extended beyond the current scope in hopes tooffer a broader perspective on how the large-scale dynamics interact with convective clouds.
Acknowledgments. The author thanks Dave Raymond,
Jim Benedict, and an anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions. The TRMM
PR (2A25) and VIRS (1B01) datasets were provided
by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Earth Observation Research Center (EORC). The
AIRS/AMSU level-3 daily gridded product was acquired
as part of the activities of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is archived and distributed by the Goddard
Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services
Center (DISC). The daily gridded AMSR-E precipitation
product was obtained from Colorado State University(rain.atmos.colostate.edu/RAINMAP/). The author is
grateful to Hiroki Ichikawa for his assistance to download
the AIRS dataset. This work is supported by the Ministryof Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology(MEXT) Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Grant
20740269).

APPENDIX A
Estimation of Surface Vapor Mixing Ratio
The lowest-level humidity available in the AIRS product is the layer mean within 1000–925 hPa; it generally
does not substitute for qy,s as it is. The lowermost AIRS
humidity is thus extrapolated down to the surface using
a simplified lower-ABL model (Fig. A1). The model isbased on the following assumptions so it conceptually

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FIG. A1. Schematic of the lower ABL model used for estimating
qy,s. Shade indicates the area to be integrated in (A3).

represents the cloud-topped ABL typical over tropicaland subtropical oceans (e.g., Malkus 1958): 1) The layerbounded by p1 5 1000 hPa and p2 5 925 hPa is considered to be a sublayer of the ABL. The subscripts 1
and 2 hereafter denote these two levels. The temperature inversion, if exists, is assumed to lie above p2 anddoes not affect the present discussion. 2) Air temperatures at p1 and p2 and the vapor mixing ratio averaged
between these levels qy are known from AIRS observations. 3) Potential temperature u is vertically constantwithin the mixed layer while u( p) follows the moist
adiabat above. 4) Vapor mixing ratio is vertically homogeneous within the mixed layer, while it decreases
with height above so that ue is conserved. 5) The entrainment zone (or transition layer) is an infinitely thinlayer with a prescribed discontinuity in u and qy, denotedby DuEZ and DqyEZ, at the mixed layer top.
The overall procedure to obtain qy,s proceeds as follows. The mixed layer top level pml is first determinedfrom the observed T1 and T2 (or u1 and u2). This is simply
done by finding the level where u( p) extending down
moist adiabatically from u2 meets the value at the mixed
layer top, that is,
u1 1 DuEZ 5 u2 1

du( p 2 p2 ),dp MA mlqy ( p) 5

Cp T( p)
L



u2
T( p)
1
ln
q ,
T2 y, 2
u( p)

(A2)

where Cp and L are the specific heat of dry air at constant pressure and specific latent heat, respectively, andu( p) and T( p) follow the moist adiabat. Finally, qy,1
as a proxy of qy,s is determined so that the verticallyaveraged vapor mixing ratio equals the observed qy ,that is,ðp1p2[qy ( p) 2 qy ] dp 5 0:

(A3)

(A1)

where


FIG. B1. The temporal sequence of (a) observed pixel count (i.e.,sample size for each composite time bin), (b) standard error insurface air temperature, and (c) standard error in lowest-level qy(1000–925-hPa mean), all composited with respect to deep tropicaldeep convection (solid) and congestus (dotted).

!

1 1 qs L/RT
du
u R
.
52
12
dp MA
p Cp
1 1 qs L2 /Ry Cp T 2

The vertical distribution of vapor mixing ratio is next
obtained for levels between pml and p2 asThis integral equation is solved iteratively until the optimal solution of qy,1 is obtained.
Currently DuEZ is prescribed to be 1 K (e.g., Betts
1973) and DqyEZ to be 3 g kg21 (cf. Fig. 3 of Johnson
et al. 2001). These parameters are by no means universally constant and would require a more flexible characterization for the precise evaluation of qy,s. The
present study, however, adopts those fixed numbers for
DuEZ and DqyEZ since they suffice to capture the overall
structure of the composite qy,s and CAPE.

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FIG. B2. Uncertainty in the composite CAPE for (a) deep convection and (b) congestus in the deep tropics. Error bars correspond to twice
the standard error in Ts and qy,s.

APPENDIX B
On the Accuracy of the Composite AIRS Parameters
AIRS temperature and humidity measurements areaffected by clouds and need a careful error estimate
when applied to cloudy scenes. As shown in Fig. B1a, thenumber of AIRS observations N(t) drops in the vicinityof t 5 0 when composited with respect to deep convection since a significant fraction of AIRS observations arescreened out by quality control within a heavily precipitating 18 3 18 pixel. Such sampling loss is not appreciable in the congestus composite. Periodic spikes
spaced every 12 h imply that the sampling inhomogeneity specific to the TRMM and Aqua orbital configurations has not been completely smoothed out in thecomposite space.
Figures B1b and B1c show the standard error of AIRS
surface temperature Ts and lowest-level vapor mixing
ratio, respectively, in the composite space. The standard
error, a measure often used for testing the sample mean
against the true mean, is computed as the mean of therms error associated with individual estimates divided
by the square root of N. The lowest level available has
been selected because it tends to have larger errors
than any higher levels. The present analysis ingests instantaneous error estimates provided in the AIRS data
products, so that local weather conditions affecting theretrieval accuracy are taken into account on a scene-byscene basis. The standard error is peaked at t 5 0 for the
deep convective case,primarily because of the inverse
pﬃﬃﬃﬃ
proportionality to N . The standard error reaches
0.045 K for temperature and 0.06 g kg21 for vapor
mixing ratio at worst. These values stay smaller thanthe variability of interest in the composite plot.
The uncertainties in ABL temperature and moisture are a main source of error in the CAPE estimate.
Figure B2 shows the CAPE uncertainty in the composite
space, where error bars are calculated with Ts and qy,s
perturbed by twice the standard error away from themean. The magnitude of uncertainty is not so large as
to obscure the overall behavior of the composite CAPE,

and thus the main conclusions of this work are insensitive to errors originating from the temperature andhumidity sounding data.

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