Convective Interaction with Boundary-Layer Dynamics in the Development of a Tropical Intraseasonal System

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Abstract
Tropical boundary-layer flows interact with the free tropospheric circulation and underlying sea surface temperature, playing a critical role in coupling collective effects of cumulus heating with equatorial dynamics. In this paper a unified theoretical framework is developed in which convective interaction with large-scale circulation includes three mechanisms: convection–wave convergence (CWC) feedback, evaporation–wind (EW) feedback, and convection–frictional convergence (CFC) feedback. We examine the dynamic instability resulting from the convective interaction with circulation, in particular the role of CFC feedback mechanism. CFC feedback results in an unstable mode that has distinctive characteristics from those occurring from CWC feedback or EW feedback in the absence of mean flow. The instability generated by CFC feedback is of low frequency with a typical growth rate on an order of 10−6 s−1. The unstable mode is a multiscale wave packet; a global-scale circulation couples with a large-s... Abstract Tropical boundary-layer flows interact with the free tropospheric circulation and underlying sea surface temperature, playing a critical role in coupling collective effects of cumulus heating with equatorial dynamics. In this paper a unified theoretical framework is developed in which convective interaction with large-scale circulation includes three mechanisms: convection–wave convergence (CWC) feedback, evaporation–wind (EW) feedback, and convection–frictional convergence (CFC) feedback. We examine the dynamic instability resulting from the convective interaction with circulation, in particular the role of CFC feedback mechanism. CFC feedback results in an unstable mode that has distinctive characteristics from those occurring from CWC feedback or EW feedback in the absence of mean flow. The instability generated by CFC feedback is of low frequency with a typical growth rate on an order of 10−6 s−1. The unstable mode is a multiscale wave packet; a global-scale circulation couples with a large-s...

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