Heating, Moistening, and Rainfall over the Western Pacific Warm Pool during TOGA COARE

Abstract

Abstract Rawinsonde, surface, and satellite data collected from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) are used to investigate the distributions of beating, moistening, precipitation, and evaporation over the western Pacific warm pool. The behavior of the atmosphere and the response of the ocean surface before, during, and after the passages of westerly wind bursts are examined. The tropospheric vertical wind shear associated with tropical low-frequency oscillations strongly modulated convective beating and moistening. Heavy precipitation usually fell 1 to 3 weeks prior to the peak westerly wind bursts. SSTs reached their maximum during the undisturbed phase of the intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs), gradually decreased as convection intensified, and reached their minimum during the periods of peak westerly winds when deep convection was generally suppressed over the intensive flux array (IFA). Surface latent heat fluxes were positively correlated w...