Identification

Title

Footprint of tropical mesoscale convective system variability on stratospheric water vapor

Abstract

Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) play a dominant role in tropical climate. However, the variabilities of their occurrences on a tropical-wide scale remain elusive, and the way they impact the tropical stratospheric moisture remains under debate. Based on a comprehensive global MCS data set during 1985-2008, we detect distinct transitions in tropical MCS activities, with the occurrence frequency of MCS during 1995-2002 being significantly lower than those before and after this period by over 10%. The stepwise transition of tropical MCSs has a significant impact on stratospheric water vapor: Active MCS occurrences result in an overall drier stratosphere, and vice versa. We demonstrate that these changes are closely related to the sea surface temperature pattern in the tropical central Pacific and the associated Walker circulation shift on convective systems. Our results suggest that the sea surface temperature variability in tropical central Pacific may exert an important forcing on the stratospheric water vapor.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7sq93m7

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2020-03-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact