Abstract
Abstract Tropical plumes are identified in satellite data as elongated cloud bands originating from convective activity along the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), often extending far into the subtropics and middle latitudes. Many previous studies consider tropical plumes as a product of quasigeostrophic or convergent forcing. Here the authors consider the view that a tropical plume is the upper branch of an enhanced thermally direct circulation driven by latent heat released along the ITCZ. In this way, tropical plume formation is strongly tied to deep cumulus convection and inertial processes. Observations of plume development show that as a midlatitude wave nears a subsequent plume genesis region, a northward advection of upper-tropospheric, low potential vorticity (potential vorticity unit ≪ 1) occurs as anticyclonic flow intensifies southeast of the midlatitude wave. As this low potential vorticity (PV) ridges over and straddles the ITCZ, plume genesis occurs. Plume development occurs about 1–2 ...
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