ATM 421 Tropical Meteorology SPRING 2011

ATM 421 Tropical Meteorology SPRING 2011 CLASS# 9112

Instructor: Chris Thorncroft TA: Kyle Griffin

Room: ES226 ES218
Phone: 518 442 4555
E-mail: chris@atmos.albany.edu kg849786@albany.edu

Time: TUES/THURS 1:15-2:35

Office Hours: THURS 2.40-3.40; or see me or e-mail me for an appointment

Aim of Course:
To describe and understand the nature of tropical weather systems and their role in the
tropical climate, including emphasis on the interactions between dynamics and
convection.

Course Assessment:
1. Homework 10%
2. Class exam on Thursday March 3rd 25%
3. Class exam on Thursday April 14th 25%
3. Final exam on Wednesday 11th May 1.00pm-3.00pm 40%

Text Books:
 ATM 421 Tropical Meteorology SPRING 2011

Lecture Plan:

1. Introduction
2. Tropical Convection
3. Large-scale Tropical Circulations
4. Easterly Waves
5. Tropical Cyclones
6. Equatorial Waves

Dry spells Flooding: Ghana 07 Flooding: New Orleans 05

 1. INTRODUCTION

Where are the tropics and what makes them special?

Zonal and time mean circulations
Asymmetric circulations
2. TROPICAL CONVECTION

Conditional Instability, CAPE, tephigrams

Vertical profiles of conserved variables
 MESOSCALE CONVECTIVE SYSTEMS

Structure, propagation and longevity issues will be discussed as well as their

impact on larger scales.

See Houze, R. A., Jr., 2004: Mesocale convective systems Rev. Geophys., 42,
10.1029/2004RG000150, 43 pp.
 3 LARGE-SCALE TROPICAL CIRCULATIONS
Key features of the West Heat
African Monsoon Low
Climate System during SAL
Boreal summer
AEJ

ITCZ Cold
Tongue
Observations and theory of monsoons
Theories for large-scale motion
Emphasis given to West African Monsoon
4. EASTERLY WAVES

Easterly waves are the dominant synoptic weather system in the Africa-
Atlantic sector but they also exist in other basins (e.g. Pacific)

We will discuss their structure and theories for their existence and growth
including how they interact with MCSs (see next slides).
Diagnostics for highlighting multi-scale aspects of AEWs

315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
315K Potential Vorticity (Coloured contours every 0.1PVU greater than 0.1 PVU)
with 700hPa trough lines and easterly jet axes from the GFS analysis (1 degree
resolution), overlaid on METEOSAT-7 IR imagery.
5. TROPICAL CYCLONES

Observations and theory of tropical cyclones

including issues that relate to genesis, structure and
track
 5. TROPICAL CYCLONES

Key weather systems in the West African and Tropical Atlantic regions
An ideal region to study scale interactions including how they impact downstream
tropical cyclogenesis

SAL AEWs

TC
MCSs

See: http://www.espo.nasa.gov/hs3/
6. Equatorial Waves – e.g. Kelvin Waves
H L H L

cat3

convergence
convection Solution of the shallow water model

Kelvin waves are the dominant synoptic weather system in the equatorial Africa
sector in Spring but they also exist in other basins (e.g. Pacific, Amazon).

We will discuss their structure and theories for their existence and growth including
how they interact with MCSs.
 Evolution of Kelvin wave
Negative phase

L H

OLR (W/m2) Wind at 850 hPa (m/s) Surface Pressure (Pa)

Shading: min convection Vectors, significant at Contours dashed: low L
max convection the T-test 99% level continue: high H
 Evolution of Kelvin wave
Initiation phase

L H

OLR (W/m2) Wind at 850 hPa (m/s) Surface Pressure (Pa)

Shading: min convection Vectors, significant at Contours dashed: low L
max convection the T-test 99% level continue: high H
 Evolution of Kelvin wave
Active phase

L
H

OLR (W/m2) Wind at 850 hPa (m/s) Surface Pressure (Pa)

Shading: min convection Vectors, significant at Contours dashed: low L
max convection the T-test 99% level continue: high H
 Evolution of Kelvin wave
Dissipation phase

OLR (W/m2) Wind at 850 hPa (m/s) Surface Pressure (Pa)

Shading: min convection Vectors, significant at Contours dashed: low L
max convection the T-test 99% level continue: high H
 MCSs
embedded in
Kelvin wave
envelops

Brightness Temperature (K)

Resolution
spatial : 0.5°
temporal : 3 hours
FINAL OVERVIEW COMMENTS

The course is fundamentally about the interactions between dynamics

and convection, combining observations, modeling and theory.

Ultimately a major motivation for research in this area is to improve our

ability to predict tropical convection (over a range of space and
timescales). This remains a major challenge and MUCH remains to be
learned.