Self‐Aggregation of Convection in Spatially Varying Sea Surface Temperatures

Abstract

AbstractThe phenomenon of self‐aggregation of convection was first identified in convection‐permitting simulations of radiative convective equilibrium, characterized by homogeneous boundary conditions and in the absence of planetary rotation. In this study, we expose self‐aggregation of convection to more complex, nonhomogeneous boundary conditions and investigate its interaction with convective aggregation, as forced by large‐scale variations in sea surface temperatures (SSTs). We do this by conducting radiative convective equilibrium simulations on a spherical domain, with SST patterns that are zonally homogeneous but meridionally varying. Due to the meridional contrast in SST, a convergence line first forms, mimicking the Intertropical Convergence Zone. We nevertheless find that the convergence line breaks up and contracts zonally as a result of the self‐aggregation of convection. The contraction is significant, being here more than 50% of the original extent. The stability of the convergence line is controlled by the strength of the meridional circulation, which depends upon the imposed SST contrast. However, the process of self‐aggregation, once it is initiated, is insensitive to the strength of the SST contrast. The zonal contraction is accompanied by a slight meridional expansion and a moistening of the high latitudes, where SSTs are low. The moistening of the high latitudes can be understood from the fact that the convective cluster intensifies and expands its moist meridional low‐level outflow when it self‐aggregates zonally. Overall, our results suggest that the Intertropical Convergence Zone may be unstable to the self‐aggregation of convection, that self‐aggregation may serve as a precursor to the formation of atmospheric rivers, and that longer convergence lines are more likely to exist in regimes with strong SST gradients.