Work

Atmospheric manifestation of tropical instability wave observed by QuikSCAT and tropical rain measuring mission

Year: 2000

Type: article

Abstract: 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.

Source: Geophysical Research Letters

DOI: 10.1029/2000gl011545

Authors: Timothy W. Liu, Xiaosu Xie, Paulo S. Polito, Shang‐Ping Xie, Hiroshi Hashizume

Institutions: California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, University of Hawaii System, Hokkaido University

Language: English

Topic: Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes

Subfield: Oceanography

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: bronze

OpenAlex ID: W2129694430

FWCI: 7.246

Cites: 22

Cited by: 187

Related to: 10