scholarly journals Objective identification of cloud regimes in the Tropical Western Pacific

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (21) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Jakob
Keyword(s):  
Western Pacific ◽  
Tropical Western Pacific ◽  
Cloud Regimes

scholarly journals The Radiative, Cloud, and Thermodynamic Properties of the Major Tropical Western Pacific Cloud Regimes

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 1203-1215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Jakob ◽  
George Tselioudis ◽  
Timothy Hume
Keyword(s):  
Thermodynamic Properties ◽  
Thermodynamic Characteristics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Cloud Properties ◽  
Tropical Western Pacific ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Shallow Clouds ◽  
Atmospheric Radiation Measurement ◽  
Cloud Regimes

Abstract This study investigates the radiative, cloud, and thermodynamic characteristics of the atmosphere separated into objectively defined cloud regimes in the tropical western Pacific (TWP). A cluster analysis is applied to 2 yr of daytime-only data from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) to identify four major cloud regimes in the TWP region. A variety of data collected at the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) site on Manus Island is then used to identify the main characteristics of the regimes. Those include surface and top-of-the-atmosphere radiative fluxes and cloud properties derived from a suite of ground-based active remote sensors, as well as the temperature and water vapor distribution measured from radiosondes. The major cloud regimes identified in the TWP area are two suppressed regimes—one dominated by the occurrence of mostly shallow clouds, the other by thin cirrus—as well as two convectively active regimes—one exhibiting a large coverage of optically thin cirrus clouds, the other characterized by a large coverage with optically thick clouds. All four of these TWP cloud regimes are shown to exist with varying frequency of occurrence at the ARM site at Manus. It is further shown that the detailed data available at that site can be used to characterize the radiative, cloud, and thermodynamic properties of each of the regimes, demonstrating the potential of the regime separation to facilitate the extrapolation of observations at one location to larger scales. A variety of other potential applications of the regime separation are discussed.

scholarly journals Precipitation and Latent Heating Characteristics of the Major Tropical Western Pacific Cloud Regimes

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (17) ◽  
pp. 4348-4364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Jakob ◽  
Courtney Schumacher
Keyword(s):  
Western Pacific ◽  
Convective Precipitation ◽  
Heating Regime ◽  
Latent Heating ◽  
Precipitation Regime ◽  
Tropical Western Pacific ◽  
Cloud Regime ◽  
Precipitation Regimes ◽  
Trmm Precipitation ◽  
Cloud Regimes

Abstract An objective tropical cloud regime classification based on daytime averaged cloud-top pressure and optical thickness information from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) is combined with precipitation and latent heating characteristics derived using the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR). TRMM precipitation information is stratified into the ISCCP regimes in the tropical western Pacific (TWP), revealing the following three major precipitation regimes: a heavy (12 mm day−1) precipitation regime dominated by stratiform precipitation and top-heavy latent heating; a regime with moderate (5 mm day−1) precipitation amounts, mostly convective in nature with more midlevel latent heating; and a low (2 mm day−1) precipitation regime with a relatively large rain contribution from shallow convection, compared to the other regimes. Although three of the ISCCP cloud regimes are linked to the more convective, moderate precipitation regime, only one of the cloud regimes is associated with the more stratiform, top-heavy latent heating regime, making the ISCCP regimes a potentially useful tool for the further study of this dynamically important tropical weather state. Similarly, only one cloud regime is associated with the more shallow convective precipitation regime. In terms of the TWP, precipitation and latent heating are dominated by the relatively infrequent (15%) occurrence of the strongly precipitating top-heavy latent heating state and by the frequent (>30%) occurrence of one of the more moderately precipitating convective states. The low precipitation/shallow cumulus regime occurs often (i.e., 25% of the time) but does not contribute strongly to the overall precipitation and latent heating. Each of these regimes also shows distinct geographical patterns in the TWP, thus providing insight into the distribution of convective and stratiform rain across the tropics. This study confirms the potential usefulness of the objective regime classification based on ISCCP, and it opens several new avenues for studying the interaction of convection with the large-scale tropical circulation.

scholarly journals LC–MS/MS Analysis of Ciguatoxins Revealing the Regional and Species Distinction of Fish in the Tropical Western Pacific

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomasa Oshiro ◽  
Takumi Tomikawa ◽  
Kyoko Kuniyoshi ◽  
Akira Ishikawa ◽  
Hajime Toyofuku ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fish Species ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Tropical Region ◽  
Northern Coast ◽  
Coastal Regions ◽  
Main Island ◽  
Tropical Western Pacific ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Fish Samples

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is one of the most frequently reported seafood poisoning diseases. It is endemic to the tropical region and occurs most commonly in the regions around the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Caribbean Sea. The principal toxins causing CFP are ciguatoxins (CTXs). In the Pacific region, more than 20 analogs of CTXs have been identified to date. Based on their skeletal structures, they are classified into CTX1B-type and CTX3C-type toxins. We have previously reported species-specific and regional-specific toxin profiles. In this study, the levels and profiles of CTXs in fish present in the tropical western Pacific regions were analyzed using the liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) technique. Forty-two fish specimens, belonging to the categories of snappers, groupers, Spanish mackerel, and moray eel, were purchased from various places such as Fiji, the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan. Only the fish captured from Fijian coastal waters contained detectable amounts of CTXs. The toxin levels in the fish species found along the coastal regions of the Viti Levu Island, the main island in Fiji, and the toxin profiles were significantly different from those of the fish species present in other coastal regions. The toxin levels and profiles varied among the different fish samples collected from different coastal areas. Based on the toxin levels and toxin profiles, the coast was demarcated into three zones. In Zone-1, which covers the northern coast of the main island and the regions of the Malake Island and Korovau, CTXs in fish were below the detection level. In Zone-2, CTX3C-type toxins were present in low levels in the fish. CTX1B-type and CTX3C-type toxins co-occurred in the fish present in Zone-3. The toxin profiles may have reflected the variation in Gambierdiscus spp.

scholarly journals An observationally constrained evaluation of the oxidative capacity in the tropical western Pacific troposphere

2016 ◽  
Vol 121 (12) ◽  
pp. 7461-7488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Nicely ◽  
Daniel C. Anderson ◽  
Timothy P. Canty ◽  
Ross J. Salawitch ◽  
Glenn M. Wolfe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Capacity ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Tropical Western Pacific

Vertical cloud properties in the tropical western Pacific Ocean: Validation of the CCSR/NIES/FRCGC GCM by shipborne radar and lidar

2008 ◽  
Vol 113 (D24) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajime Okamoto ◽  
Tomoaki Nishizawa ◽  
Toshihiko Takemura ◽  
Kaori Sato ◽  
Hiroshi Kumagai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Western Pacific Ocean ◽  
Cloud Properties ◽  
Tropical Western Pacific

scholarly journals What is the fate of detrained ice in the Tropical Western Pacific

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blaž Gasparini ◽  
Philip Rasch ◽  
Dennis Hartmann ◽  
Casey Wall ◽  
Marina Duetsch
Keyword(s):  
Western Pacific ◽  
Tropical Western Pacific

scholarly journals Water vapor anomaly over the tropical western Pacific in El Niño winters from radiosonde and satellite observations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minkang Du ◽  
Kaiming Huang ◽  
Shaodong Zhang ◽  
Chunming Huang ◽  
Yun Gong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Walker Circulation ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Monsoon Circulation ◽  
Circulation Anomaly ◽  
Tropical Western Pacific ◽  
Ep El Niño ◽  
The Walker Circulation

Abstract. Using radiosonde observations at five stations in the tropical western Pacific and reanalysis data for 15 years from 2005 to 2019, we report an extremely negative anomaly in atmospheric water vapor during the super El Niño winter of 2015/16, and compare the anomaly with that in the other three El Niño winters. Strong specific humidity anomaly is concentrated below 8 km of the troposphere with a peak at 2.5–3.5 km, and column integrated water vapor mass anomaly over the five radiosonde sites has a large negative correlation coefficient of −0.63 with oceanic Niño3.4 index, but with a lag of about 2–3 months. In general, the tropical circulation anomaly in the El Niño winter is characterized by divergence (convergence) in the lower troposphere over the tropical western (eastern) Pacific, thus the water vapor decreases over the tropical western Pacific as upward motion is suppressed. The variability of the Hadley circulation is quite small and has little influence on the observed water vapor anomaly. The anomaly of the Walker circulation makes a considerable contribution to the total anomaly in all the four El Niño winters, especially in the 2006/07 and 2015/16 eastern-Pacific (EP) El Niño events. The monsoon circulation shows a remarkable change from one to the other event, and its anomaly is large in the 2009/10 and 2018/19 central-Pacific (CP) El Niño winters and small in the two EP El Niño winters. The observed water vapor anomaly is caused mainly by the Walker circulation anomaly in the supper EP event of 2015/16 but by the monsoon circulation anomaly in the strong CP event of 2009/10. Owing to the anomalous decrease in upward transport of water vapor during the El Niño winter, less cloud amount and more outgoing longwave radiation over the five stations are clearly presented in satellite observation.

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