Knippertz, P, Wernli, H and Gläser, G (2013) A global climatology of tropical moisture exports. Journal of Climate, 26 (10). 3031 - 3045. ISSN 0894-8755
Abstract
In a recent paper, a climatology of tropical moisture exports (TMEs) to the Northern Hemisphere (NH) was constructed on the basis of 7-day forward trajectories, started daily from the tropical lower troposphere, which were required to reach a water vapor flux of at least 100 g kg m s somewhere north of 35°N. It was shown that TMEs contribute significantly to regional precipitation. Here, the authors complement and extend this work by (i) using 6-hourly European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Interim Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) data from 1979 to 2010 instead of the earlier 40-yr ECMWFRe-Analysis (ERA-40), (ii) extending the climatology to the Southern Hemisphere (SH), and (iii) relating TME events to atmospheric rivers (ARs) previously discussed in the literature. The main conclusions are as follows: First, the TME climatology is not sensitive to the reanalysis dataset. Second, SH TME shows four activity centers: the central and eastern Pacific Ocean (170°-90°W, near the South Pacific convergence zone), eastern South America and the adjacent Atlantic Ocean (60°W-0°, near the South Atlantic convergence zone), the western Indian Ocean (30°-80°E), and western Australia (110°-140°E). Third, TME activity in the SH peaks in austral summer because of higher moisture contents and possibly because of increased Rossby wave activity from the NH. Fourth, El Niño warm events are associated with reduced activity over the South Pacific and increased activity over the South Atlantic and around Australia, while correlations with the southern annular mode are generally weak. Finally, around 90% of all ARs affecting the U.S. West Coast during December-May are connected to TME events, revealing their importance for heavy rain and flooding.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Copyright [2013] American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act September 2010 Page 2 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (http://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or copyrights@ametsoc.org. |
Keywords: | Eastern pacific Ocean; European centre for medium-range weather forecasts; Northern hemisphere; Rossby wave activity; South atlantic convergence zones; South pacific convergence zones; Southern Annular Mode; Western indian oceans |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 11 Oct 2013 11:16 |
Last Modified: | 15 Sep 2014 02:58 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00401.1 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Meteorological Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00401.1 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:76585 |