Trade Winds and the Trade Wind Inversion

2011 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Trade Wind ◽  
Trade Winds ◽  
Trade Wind Inversion

Dynamical Adjustment of the Trade Wind Inversion Layer

1995 ◽  
Vol 52 (16) ◽  
pp. 2941-2952 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne H. Schubert ◽  
Paul E. Ciesielski ◽  
Chungu Lu ◽  
Richard H. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Inversion Layer ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Trade Wind Inversion

scholarly journals One-year analysis of rain and rain erosivity in a tropical volcanic island from UHF wind profiler measurements

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 3249-3277 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Réchou ◽  
M. Plu ◽  
B. Campistron ◽  
R. Decoupes
Keyword(s):  
Kinetic Energy ◽  
Rain Rate ◽  
Cold Front ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Energy Fluxes ◽  
Trade Winds ◽  
Rainfall Events ◽  
The Mean ◽  
One Year

Abstract. La Réunion is a volcanic island in a tropical zone, which soil undergoes intense erosion. The possible contribution of rainfall to erosion is analyzed and quantified using one year of UHF radar profiler data located at sea level. Measurements of reflectivity, vertical and horizontal wind allow, with suitable assumptions, to determine raindrop vertical and horizontal energy fluxes, which are both essential parameters for erosion. After calibration of radar rain rates, one-year statistics between May 2009 to April 2010 allow to identify differences in rain vertical profiles depending on the season. During the cool dry season, the mean rain rate is less than 2.5 mm h−1 as high as 1.25 km and it decreases at higher altitudes due to the trade winds inversion. During the warm moist season, the mean rain rate is nearly uniform from ground up to 4 km, around 5 mm h−1. The dynamical and microphysical properties of rainfall events are investigated on three cases that are representative of meteorological events in La Réunion: summer deep convection, a cold front and a winter depression embedded in trade winds. For intense rainfall events, the rain rate deduced from the gamma function is in agreement with the rain rate deduced from the mere Marshall Palmer exponential relationship. For less intense events, the gamma function is necessary to represent rain distribution. The deep-convection event is associated to strong reflectivity reaching as high as 10 km, and strong negative vertical velocity. Wind shear is responsible for a deficiency of radar rain detection at the lower levels. During a cold front event, strong reflectivities reach the trade wind inversion (around 4 km high). The trade wind depression generates moderate rain only as high as 2 km. For all the altitudes, the horizontal kinetic energy fluxes are one order of magnitude stronger that than the vertical kinetic energy fluxes. A simple relationship between the reflectivity factor and vertical kinetic energy fluxes is found for each case study.

A Note on the FM-CW radar as a remote probe of the pacific trade-wind inversion

1973 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. R. Bean ◽  
R. E. McGavin ◽  
B. D. Warner
Keyword(s):  
Trade Wind ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Trade Wind Inversion ◽  
Cw Radar

scholarly journals Mesoscale spatio-temporal variability of airborne lidar-derived aerosol properties in the Barbados region during EUREC<sup>4</sup>A

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Chazette ◽  
Alexandre Baron ◽  
Cyrille Flamant
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Variability ◽  
Cloud Cover ◽  
Airborne Lidar ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Tropical Atlantic ◽  
Trade Winds ◽  
Airborne Measurements ◽  
Fractional Cloud ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Humidity Field

Abstract. From 23 January to 13 February 2020, twenty ATR-42 scientific flights were conducted in the framework of the EUREC4A field campaign over the tropical Atlantic, off the coast of Barbados (−58°30' W 13°30' N). By means of a side-pointing lidar, these flights allowed to retrieve the optical properties of the aerosols found in the sub-cloud layer and below the trade winds inversion. Two distinct periods with significant aerosol contents were identified in relationship with the so-called trade wind and tropical regimes, respectively. A very strong spatial heterogeneity of the aerosol field has been highlighted at the airborne measurements scale of a few tens of kilometres. This heterogeneity, difficult to capture using spaceborne instruments, can be related to the highly variable relative humidity field and the fractional cloud cover encountered during all the flights.

Understanding the Anthropogenically Forced Change of Equatorial Pacific Trade Winds in Coupled Climate Models*

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (22) ◽  
pp. 8510-8526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baoqiang Xiang ◽  
Bin Wang ◽  
Juan Li ◽  
Ming Zhao ◽  
June-Yi Lee
Keyword(s):  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Walker Circulation ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Equatorial Pacific ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Trade Winds ◽  
The Walker Circulation

Abstract Understanding the change of equatorial Pacific trade winds is pivotal for understanding the global mean temperature change and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) property change. The weakening of the Walker circulation due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing was suggested as one of the most robust phenomena in current climate models by examining zonal sea level pressure gradient over the tropical Pacific. This study explores another component of the Walker circulation change focusing on equatorial Pacific trade wind change. Model sensitivity experiments demonstrate that the direct/fast response due to GHG forcing is to increase the trade winds, especially over the equatorial central-western Pacific (ECWP) (5°S–5°N, 140°E–150°W), while the indirect/slow response associated with sea surface temperature (SST) warming weakens the trade winds. Further, analysis of the results from 19 models in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and the Parallel Ocean Program (POP)–Ocean Atmosphere Sea Ice Soil (OASIS)–ECHAM model (POEM) shows that the projected weakening of the trades is robust only in the equatorial eastern Pacific (EEP) ( 5°S–5°N, 150°–80°W), but highly uncertain over the ECWP with 9 out of 19 CMIP5 models producing intensified trades. The prominent and robust weakening of EEP trades is suggested to be mainly driven by a top-down mechanism: the mean vertical advection of more upper-tropospheric warming downward to generate a cyclonic circulation anomaly in the southeast tropical Pacific. In the ECWP, the large intermodel spread is primarily linked to model diversity in simulating the relative warming of the equatorial Pacific versus the tropical mean sea surface temperature. The possible root causes of the uncertainty for the trade wind change are also discussed.

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