HR: 08:45h
AN: A31D-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Horizontal and Vertical Structure of Pacific and Atlantic Easterly Waves
AU: * Serra, Y
EM: serra@atmo.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona, 1118 E 4th St, P.O. Box 210081, Tucson, AZ 85721-0081, United States
AU: Kiladis, G
EM: George.Kiladis@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/ESRL Physical Sciences Division, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305-3328, United States
AU: Cronin, M
EM: Meghan.F.Cronin@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, United States
AB: Outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and wind fields in the Atlantic and Pacific intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) are dominated by variability on synoptic time scales primarily associated with easterly waves during boreal summer and fall. This study uses spectral filtering of observed OLR data to capture the convective variability coupled to easterly waves. Filtered OLR is then used as an independent variable to isolate easterly wave structure in wind, temperature and humidity fields from radiosondes and NCEP/NCAR reanalyses. Our previous work has isolated the structure of Atlantic and Pacific easterly waves. The current study documents the structure of these waves in the Caribbean region and their passage from the Atlantic into the east Pacific. The structure is found to vary according to surface conditions (i.e. land or water), as well as with latitude within the Caribbean region. Eddy energy conversion terms are also presented for key locations throughout the region and compared to Atlantic and Pacific wave energetics.
DE: 3300 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES
DE: 3309 Climatology (1616, 1620, 3305, 4215, 8408)
DE: 3354 Precipitation (1854)
DE: 3364 Synoptic-scale meteorology
DE: 3374 Tropical meteorology
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly