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Author
Groenen, Danielle Elizabeth
Title
Diagnosing the Atmospheric Phenomena Associated with the Onset and Demise of the Rainy Season in Mesoamerica
Type
$loc['typeJournal Article']
Year
2019
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Mexico and Central America (Mesoamerica) are situated in a complex and unique geographical position with the Caribbean Sea to the East and the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean to the West. The weather patterns of this region are driven by winds, temperatures, moisture, and orography of several mountain ranges. This study finds the dates of the onset and demise of rainfall regimes on a specific day using NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall for years 1998–2012, area-averaged over land. Using NASA’s MERRA-2 Reanalysis data, we also look at the phenomenology of the triggers of the rainy season onset and demise on the daily time-scale instead of the monthly scales used by previous studies. We find that the Mesoamerican Rainy Season can be distinguished into two parts: the Early Spring Rainfall (ESR) associated with light rains and the Late Spring Rainfall (LSR) associated with heavy rains. Two algorithms are used to obtain these rainy season distinctions. A new algorithm was developed during this study, called the SLOPE algorithm, to calculate when the rain rates first start to increase. In the second method, the daily cumulative anomalies of rainfall are compared to the climatological rainfall to find the time of onset of the heavy rains, called the MINCA algorithm. To better understand the phenomenology associated with the timing of the rainfall, we look at the monsoon trough, moisture flux convergence, moist static energy anomalies, and the weakening/strengthening of the winds associated with the Caribbean Low-Level Jet and Panama Jet. The light rain rates begin, on average, in mid-March, approximately one month after the peak of the winter Caribbean Low-Level Jet and the Panama Jet. The ramp-up between the light rains and heavy rains is associated with a significant weakening of both jets and the northward progression of a monsoon trough off the western coast of Central America. The heavy rain rates begin, on average, in mid-May, and are associated with the timing when the Panama Jet goes to near zero magnitude and a strong monsoon trough in the eastern Pacific. At the demise of the rainfall, approximately in mid-November, the Panama Jet strengthens again, the total moisture flux convergence decreases significantly, and the monsoon trough retreats southward and eastward. The results of this study have positive implications in agriculture and water resources for Mesoamerica, as this information may help resource managers better plan and adapt to climate variability.
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$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ user @
Serial
1085
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Author
Guerra, L.A.A. ; Paiva, A.M. ; Chassignet, E.P.
Title
On the translation of Agulhas rings to the western South Atlantic Ocean
Type
$loc['typeJournal Article']
Year
2018
Publication
Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers
Abbreviated Journal
Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers
Volume
139
Issue
Pages
104-113
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Abstract
The shedding of Agulhas rings is the primary process connecting the Indian and Atlantic oceans. The rings transport warm and salty waters that feed the surface limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Early studies suggest that Agulhas rings decay and diffuse their contents within the South Atlantic subtropical gyre. In this paper, we update the ring census using an automated algorithm to detect and track eddies over more than 23 years of satellite altimetry data (1993-2016) and calculate their main characteristics. While 140 rings spawned from the Agulhas Retroflection, their following splitting and merging resulted in 74 long-lived rings that crossed the Walvis Ridge and translated towards the west. Eventually, three rings reached the western boundary. For one of them, we use in situ measurements to document its interaction with the Brazil Current and two cyclonic eddies, which resulted in a current velocity increase by three times. Although already hypothesized, this interaction had not been demonstrated with in situ evidence until now.
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ISSN
0967-0637
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$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ user @
Serial
994
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Author
Guimond, S. R. ; Turk, J. ; Blankenship, C. ; Hawkins, J.
Title
Detecting tropical cyclone structural change with the TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) and Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU)
Type
$loc['typeConference Article']
Year
2006
Publication
86th Annual American Meteorological Society Meeting, Office of Naval Research, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ mfield @
Serial
920
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Author
Henson, J. I. ; Muller-Karger, F. ; Wilson, D. ; Morey, S. L. ; Maul, G. A. ; Luther, M. ; Kranenburg, C.
Title
Strategic geographic positioning of sea level gauges to aid in early detection of tsunamis in the Intra-Americas Sea
Type
$loc['typeJournal Article']
Year
2006
Publication
Science of Tsunami Hazards
Abbreviated Journal
Volume
25
Issue
3
Pages
173-207
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$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ mfield @
Serial
940
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Author
Hilburn, K. A. ; Bourassa, M. A. ; O'Brien, J. J.
Title
Development of scatterometer-derived research-quality surface pressure fields for the Southern Ocean
Type
$loc['typeReport']
Year
2002
Publication
Abbreviated Journal
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30-31
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AMS
Place of Publication
Orlando, FL
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NASA, ONR
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$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ mfield @
Serial
838
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Author
Hite, M. ; Bourassa, M. A. ; O'Brien, J. J.
Title
Objective detection of Atlantic tropical disturbances
Type
$loc['typeConference Article']
Year
2006
Publication
14th Conference on Interactions of the Sea and Atmosphere, AMS, Monterey, CA, USA
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cdrom
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NASA, OVWST, OSU, TCSP
Approved
$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ mfield @
Serial
932
Permanent link to this record
Author
Hite, M. M. ; Bourassa, M. A. ; O'Brien, J. J.
Title
Vorticity-Based Detection Of Tropical Cyclones
Type
$loc['typeConference Article']
Year
2006
Publication
14th Conference on Interactions of the Sea and Atmosphere, American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, Ga, USA
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cdrom
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Series Editor
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NASA, OSU, SEAWINDS
Approved
$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ mfield @
Serial
922
Permanent link to this record
Author
Hoffman, R.N. ; Privé, N. ; Bourassa, M.
Title
Comments on “Reanalyses and Observations: What's the Difference?”
Type
$loc['typeJournal Article']
Year
2017
Publication
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Abbreviated Journal
Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Volume
98
Issue
11
Pages
2455-2459
Keywords
GEOPHYSICAL DATA ; marine surface winds ; energy and water cycles
Abstract
Are there important differences between reanalysis data and familiar observations and measurements? If so, what are they? This essay evaluates four possible answers that relate to: the role of inference, reliance on forecasts, the need to solve an ill-posed inverse problem, and understanding of errors and uncertainties. The last of these is argued to be most significant. The importance of characterizing uncertainties associated with results—whether those results are observations or measurements, analyses or reanalyses, or forecasts—is emphasized.
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0003-0007
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$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ rl18 @
Serial
990
Permanent link to this record
Author
Holbach, H.M. ; Uhlhorn, E.W. ; Bourassa, M.A.
Title
Off-Nadir SFMR Brightness Temperature Measurements in High-Wind Conditions
Type
$loc['typeJournal Article']
Year
2018
Publication
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology
Abbreviated Journal
J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol.
Volume
35
Issue
9
Pages
1865-1879
Keywords
Tropical cyclones ; Wind ; Air-sea interaction ; Microwave observations ; Remote sensing ; Surface observations
Abstract
Wind and wave-breaking directions are investigated as potential sources of an asymmetry identified in off-nadir remotely sensed measurements of ocean surface brightness temperatures obtained by the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) in high-wind conditions, including in tropical cyclones. Surface wind speed, which dynamically couples the atmosphere and ocean, can be inferred from SFMR ocean surface brightness temperature measurements using a radiative transfer model and an inversion algorithm. The accuracy of the ocean surface brightness temperature to wind speed calibration relies on accurate knowledge of the surface variables that are influencing the ocean surface brightness temperature. Previous studies have identified wind direction signals in horizontally polarized radiometer measurements in low to moderate (0�20 m s−1) wind conditions over a wide range of incidence angles. This study finds that the azimuthal asymmetry in the off-nadir SFMR brightness temperature measurements is also likely a function of wind direction and extends the results of these previous studies to high-wind conditions. The off-nadir measurements from the SFMR provide critical data for improving the understanding of the relationships between brightness temperature, surface wave�breaking direction, and surface wind vectors at various incidence angles, which is extremely useful for the development of geophysical model functions for instruments like the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD).
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0739-0572
ISBN
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$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ rl18 @
Serial
980
Permanent link to this record
Author
Hu, X. ; Cai, M. ; Yang, S. ; Wu, Z.
Title
Delineation of thermodynamic and dynamic responses to sea surface temperature forcing associated with El Niño
Type
$loc['typeJournal Article']
Year
2018
Publication
Climate Dynamics
Abbreviated Journal
Clim Dyn
Volume
51
Issue
11-12
Pages
4329-4344
Keywords
El Niño ; SST anomalies ; Thermodynamic and dynamic responses ; Gill-type response
Abstract
A new framework is proposed to gain a better understanding of the response of the atmosphere over the tropical Pacific to the radiative heating anomaly associated with the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly in canonical El Niño winters. The new framework is based on the equilibrium balance between thermal radiative cooling anomalies associated with air temperature response to SST anomalies and other thermodynamic and dynamic processes. The air temperature anomalies in the lower troposphere are mainly in response to radiative heating anomalies associated with SST, atmospheric water vapor, and cloud anomalies that all exhibit similar spatial patterns. As a result, air temperature induced thermal radiative cooling anomalies would balance out most of the radiative heating anomalies in the lower troposphere. The remaining part of the radiative heating anomalies is then taken away by an enhancement (a reduction) of upward energy transport in the central-eastern (western) Pacific basin, a secondary contribution to the air temperature anomalies in the lower troposphere. Above the middle troposphere, radiative effect due to water vapor feedback is weak. Thermal radiative cooling anomalies are mainly in balance with the sum of latent heating anomalies, vertical and horizontal energy transport anomalies associated with atmospheric dynamic response and the radiative heating anomalies due to changes in cloud. The pattern of Gill-type response is attributed mainly to the non-radiative heating anomalies associated with convective and large-scale energy transport. The radiative heating anomalies associated with the anomalies of high clouds also contribute positively to the Gill-type response. This sheds some light on why the Gill-type atmospheric response can be easily identifiable in the upper atmosphere.
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Series Editor
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ISSN
0930-7575
ISBN
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Approved
$loc['no']
Call Number
COAPS @ user @
Serial
997
Permanent link to this record