Observing the Tropical Atmosphere in Moisture Space

Abstract

Measurements from the Barbados Cloud Observatory are analyzed to identify the processes influencing the distribution of moist static energy and the large-scale organization of tropical convection. Five years of water vapor and cloud profiles from a Raman lidar and cloud radar are composed to construct the structure of the observed atmosphere in moisture space. The large-scale structure of the atmosphere is similar to that now familiar from idealized studies of convective self-aggregation, with shallow clouds prevailing over a moist marine layer in regions of low-rank humidity, and deep convection in a nearly saturated atmosphere in regions of high-rank humidity. With supplementary reanalysis datasets the overall circulation pattern is reconstructed in moisture space, and shows evidence of a substantial lower-tropospheric component to the circulation. This shallow component of the circulation helps support the differentiation between the moist and dry columns, similar to what is found in simulations of convective self-aggregation. Radiative calculations show that clear-sky radiative differences can explain a substantial part of this circulation, with further contributions expected from cloud radiative effects. The shallow component appears to be important for maintaining the low gross moist stability of the convecting column. A positive feedback between a shallow circulation driven by differential radiative cooling and the low-level moisture gradients that help support it is hypothesized to play an important role in conditioning the atmosphere for deep convection. The analysis suggests that the radiatively driven shallow circulations identified by modeling studies as contributing to the self-aggregation of convection in radiative–convective equilibrium similarly play a role in shaping the intertropical convergence zone and, hence, the large-scale structure of the tropical atmosphere.