Abstract
One of the crucial features of tropical convection is the observed variability on multiple spatiotemporal scales, ranging from cumulus clouds on the daily time scale over a few kilometers to intraseasonal oscillations over planetary scales. The diurnal cycle of tropical convection is a significant process, but its large-scale impact is not well understood. Here, we develop a multi-scale analytic model to assess the intraseasonal impact of planetary-scale inertial oscillations in the diurnal cycle. A self-contained derivation of a multi-scale model governing planetary-scale tropical flows on the daily and intraseasonal time scale is provided below, by following the derivation of systematic multi-scale models for tropical convection. This derivation demonstrates the analytic tractability of the model. The appeal of the multi-scale model developed here is that it provides assessment of eddy flux divergences of momentum and temperature and their intraseasonal impact on the planetary-scale circulation in a transparent fashion. Here, we use it to study the intraseasonal impact of a model for the diurnal cycle heating with two local phase-lagged baroclinic modes with the congestus, deep, stratiform life cycle. The results show that during boreal summer, the eddy flux divergence of temperature dominates in the northern hemisphere, providing significant heating in the middle troposphere of the northern hemisphere with large-scale ascent and cooling with subsidence surrounding this heating center. Due to the analytic tractability of the model, such significant eddy flux divergence of temperature is traced to meridional asymmetry of the diurnal cycle heating. In an ideal zonally symmetric case, the resulting planetary-scale circulation on the intraseasonal time scale during boreal summer is characterized by ascent in the northern hemisphere, southward motion in the upper troposphere, descent around the equator and northward motion in the lower troposphere. The intraseasonal impact of the diurnal cycle on the planetary scale also includes negative potential temperature anomalies in the lower troposphere, which suggests convective triggering in the tropics. Furthermore, a fully coupled model for the intraseasonal impact of the diurnal cycle on the Hadley cell shows that the overturning motion induced by the eddy flux divergences of momentum and temperature from the diurnal cycle can strengthen the upper branch of the winter cell of the Hadley circulation, but weaken the lower branch of the winter cell. The corresponding eddy fluxes from the diurnal cycle are very weak for the equinox case with symmetric meridional profiles, and eddy momentum fluxes are small for all scenarios considered here.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albright M.D., Mock D.R., Recker E.E., Reed R.J.: A diagnostic study of the diurnal rainfall variation in the GATE B-scale area. J. Atmos. Sci. 38, 1429–1445 (1981)
Benedict J.J., Randall D.A.: Impacts of idealized air–sea coupling on Madden–Julian oscillation structure in the superparameterized CAM. J. Atmos. Sci. 68, 1990–2008 (2011)
Biello J.A., Majda A.J.: A new multiscale model for the Madden–Julian oscillation. J. Atmos. Sci. 62, 1694–1721 (2005)
Biello J.A., Majda A.J.: Modulating synoptic scale convective activity and boundary layer dissipation in the IPESD models of the Madden–Julian oscillation. Dyn. Atmos. Ocean. 42, 152–215 (2006)
Biello J.A., Majda A.J.: Intraseasonal multi-scale moist dynamics of the tropical atmosphere. Commun. Math. Sci. 8, 519–540 (2010)
Dai A., Trenberth K.E.: The diurnal cycle and its depiction in the community climate system model. J. Clim. 17, 930–951 (2004)
Frenkel Y., Khouider B., Majda A.J.: Simple multicloud models for the diurnal cycle of tropical precipitation. Part I: formulation and the case of the tropical oceans. J. Atmos. Sci. 68, 2169–2190 (2011)
Frenkel Y., Khouider B., Majda A.J.: Simple multicloud models for the diurnal cycle of tropical precipitation. Part II: the continental regime. J. Atmos. Sci. 68, 2192–2207 (2011)
Frenkel Y., Majda A.J., Khouider B.: Simple models for the diurnal cycle and convectively coupled waves. Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 27, 533–559 (2013)
Haertel P.T., Kiladis G.N.: Dynamics of 2-day equatorial waves. J. Atmos. Sci. 61, 2707–2721 (2004)
Hendon H.H., Liebmann B.: Organization of convection within the Madden-Julian oscillation. J. Geophys. Res.: Atmos. (1984–2012) 99, 8073–8083 (1994)
Holton J.R., Hakim G.J.: An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology. Academic Press, London (2012)
Houze R.A., Betts A.K.: Convection in GATE. Rev. Geophys. 19, 541–576 (1981)
Johnson R.H., Rickenbach T.M., Rutledge S.A., Ciesielski P.E., Schubert W.H.: Trimodal characteristics of tropical convection. J. Clim. 12, 2397–2418 (1999)
Khairoutdinov M., Randall D., DeMott C.: Simulations of the atmospheric general circulation using a cloud-resolving model as a superparameterization of physical processes. J. Atmos. Sci. 62, 2136–2154 (2005)
Khouider B., Majda A.J.: Model multi-cloud parameterizations for convectively coupled waves: detailed nonlinear wave evolution. Dyn. Atmos. Ocean. 42, 59–80 (2006)
Khouider B., Majda A.J.: Multicloud convective parameterizations with crude vertical structure. Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 20, 351–375 (2006)
Khouider B., Majda A.J.: A simple multicloud parameterization for convectively coupled tropical waves. Part I: linear analysis. J. Atmos. Sci. 63, 1308–1323 (2006)
Kikuchi K., Wang B.: Diurnal precipitation regimes in the global tropics. J. Clim. 21, 2680–2696 (2008)
Lin J.-L., Zhang M., Mapes B.: Zonal momentum budget of the Madden–Julian oscillation: the source and strength of equivalent linear damping. J. Atmos. Sci. 62, 2172–2188 (2005)
Lin X., Johnson R.H.: Kinematic and thermodynamic characteristics of the flow over the western Pacific warm pool during TOGA COARE. J. Atmos. Sci. 53, 695–715 (1996)
Majda, A.J.: Introduction to PDEs and waves for the atmosphere and ocean. In: Courant lecture notes in mathematics, vol 9. American Mathematical Society, New York (2003)
Majda A.J.: New multiscale models and self-similarity in tropical convection. J. Atmos. Sci. 64, 1393–1404 (2007)
Majda A.J., Biello J.A.: A multiscale model for tropical intraseasonal oscillations. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 4736–4741 (2004)
Majda A.J., Klein R.: Systematic multiscale models for the Tropics. J. Atmos. Sci. 60, 393–408 (2003)
Mapes B., Tulich S., Lin J., Zuidema P.: The mesoscale convection life cycle: building block or prototype for large-scale tropical waves. Dyn. Atmos. Ocean. 42, 3–29 (2006)
McGarry M.M., Reed R.J.: Diurnal variations in convective activity and precipitation during phases II and III of GATE. Mon. Weather Rev. 106, 101–113 (1978)
Nakazawa T.: Tropical super clusters within intraseasonal variations over the western Pacific. J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn. 66, 823–839 (1988)
Nesbitt S.W., Zipser E.J.: The diurnal cycle of rainfall and convective intensity according to three years of TRMM measurements. J. Clim. 16, 1456–1475 (2003)
Randall D.A., Dazlich D.A.: Diurnal variability of the hydrologic cycle in a general circulation model. J. Atmos. Sci. 48, 40–62 (1991)
Ray C.L.: Diurnal variation of rainfall at San Juan, pr 1. Mon. Weather Rev. 56, 140–141 (1928)
Romps D.M.: Rayleigh damping in the free troposphere. J. Atmos. Sci. 71, 553–565 (2014)
Sato T., Miura H., Satoh M., Takayabu Y.N., Wang Y.: Diurnal cycle of precipitation in the tropics simulated in a global cloud-resolving model. J. Clim. 22, 4809–4826 (2009)
Sorooshian S., Gao X., Hsu K., Maddox R.A., Hong Y., Gupta H.V., Imam B.: Diurnal variability of tropical rainfall retrieved from combined GOES and TRMM satellite information. J. Clim. 15, 983–1001 (2002)
Sperber K.R., Slingo J.M., Inness P.M., Lau W.K-M.: On the maintenance and initiation of the intraseasonal oscillation in the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and in the GLA and UKMO AMIP simulations. Clim. Dyn. 13, 769–795 (1997)
Takayabu Y.N.: Spectral representation of rain profiles and diurnal variations observed with TRMM PR over the equatorial area. Geophys. Res. Lett. 29, 25–1 (2002)
Tian B., Soden B.J., Wu X.: Diurnal cycle of convection, clouds, and water vapor in the tropical upper troposphere: satellites versus a general circulation model. J. Geophys. Res.: Atmos. (1984–2012) 109, D10101 (2004)
Wheeler M., Kiladis G.N.: Convectively coupled equatorial waves: analysis of clouds and temperature in the wavenumber-frequency domain. J. Atmos. Sci. 56, 374–399 (1999)
Yang G.-Y., Slingo J.: The diurnal cycle in the tropics. Mon. Weather Rev. 129, 784–801 (2001)
Yang S., Smith E.A.: Mechanisms for diurnal variability of global tropical rainfall observed from TRMM. J. Clim. 19, 5190–5226 (2006)
Yanai M., Chen B., Tung W.: The Madden-Julian oscillation observed during the TOGA COARE IOP: global view. J. Atmos. Sci. 57, 2374–2396 (2000)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Tim Colonius.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, Q., Majda, A.J. A multi-scale model for the intraseasonal impact of the diurnal cycle of tropical convection. Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 28, 605–633 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00162-014-0336-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00162-014-0336-3