Surface wind, subcloud humidity and the stability of the tropical climate

Rodrigo Caballero

doi:10.3402/tellusa.v53i4.12224

Surface wind, subcloud humidity and the stability of the tropical climate

Tellus

Volume 53 (2001): Issue 4

By: Rodrigo Caballero

Open Access

|Jan 2001

Abstract

The dominant balance in the tropical ocean surface energy budget is between radiative heating and evaporative cooling. It has been proposed recently that a positive correlation between surface wind and ocean temperature could enhance the stabilising effect of evaporation. The issue is studied here using a single-column radiative-convective model of the tropical atmosphere. It is found that the proposed coupling of surface wind to temperature will indeed always increase the stability of the system, but the extent to which it does so depends in an essential way on the strength of the upper tropospheric water vapour feedback.

References

Alexeev , V. A. and J. R. Bates 1999 . GCM experiments to test a proposed dynamical stabilizing mechanism in the climate system . Tellus 51A , 630 – 651 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Bates , J. R . 1999 . A dynamical stabilizer in the climate system: a mechanism suggested by a simple model . Tellus 51A , 349 – 372 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Betts , A. K. and W. Ridgway 1989 . Climatic equilibrium of the atmospheric convective boundary layer over a tropical ocean . J. Atmos. Sci . 46 , 2621 – 2641 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Bush , A. B. G. and S. G. H. Philander 1998 . The role of ocean—atmosphere interactions in tropical cooling during the last glacial maximum . Science 279 , 1341 – 1344 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cessi , P . 2000 . Thermal feedback on windstress as a contributing cause of climate variability . J. Climate 13 , 232 – 244 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Chou , M.-D. and M. J. Suarez 1994 . An efficient thermal infrared radiation parameterization for use in general circulation models. NASA Tech. Memo . 104606 , 3, 102 pp.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Chou , M.-D. and M. J. Suarez 1999 . A solar radiation parameterization for atmospheric studies. NASA Tech. Memo . 104606 , 15, 48 pp.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Clement , A. and R. Seager , 1999 . Climate and the Trop-ical Oceans . J. Clim . 12 , 3383 – 3401 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Clement , A. C. , R. Seager , M. A. Cane and S. E. Zebiak 1996 . An ocean dynamical thermostat . J. Climate 9 , 2190 – 2196 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hartmann , D. L. and M. L. Michelsen 1993 . Large-scale effects on the regulation of tropical sea surface temper-ature . J. Climate 6 , 2049 – 2062 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Held , I. M. and B. J. Soden 2000 . Water vapor feedback and global warming . Annu. Rev. Energy Env . 25 , 441 – 475 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hoffert , M. I. , B. P. Flannery , A. J. Callegari , C. T. Hsieh and W. Wiscombe 1983 . Evaporation-limited tropical temperatures as a constraint on climate sensitivity . J. Atmos. Sci . 40 , 1659 – 1668 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Larson , K. , D. L. Hartmann and S. A. Klein 1999 . The rôle of clouds, water vapor, circulation and boundary layer structure in the sensitivity of the tropical climate . J. Climate 12 , 2359 – 2374 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Miller , R. L . 1997 . Tropical thermostats and low cloud cover . J. Climate 10 , 409 – 440 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Newell , R. E. and T. G. Dopplick 1979 . Questions con-cerning the possible influence of anthropogenic CO2 on atmospheric temperature . J. App. Meteor . 18 , 822 – 825 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Nilsson , J. and K. A. Emanuel 1999 . Equilibrium atmo-spheres of a two-column radiative-convective model . Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc . 125 , 2239 – 2264 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Peixoto , J. P. and A. H. Oort 1992 . Physics of climate . American Institute of Physics , New York , 520 pp .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Pierrehumbert , R. T . 1995 . Thermostats, radiator fins, and the local runaway greenhouse . J. Atmos. Sci . 52 , 1784 – 1806 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Ramanathan , V. and W. Collins 1991 . Thermodynamic regulation of ocean warming by cirrus clouds deduced from observations of the 1987 El Nino . Nature 351 , 27 – 32 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Sarachik , E. S . 1978 . Tropical sea surface temperature: an interactive one-dimensional atmosphere—ocean model . Dyn. Atmos. Oceans 2 , 455 – 469 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Seager , R. , A. C. Clement and M. A. Cane 2000 . Glacial cooling in the Tropics: exploring the roles of tropo-spheric water vapor, surface wind speed and boundary layer processes. J. Atmos. Sc i . 57 , 2144 – 2157 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Sun , D. Z. and R. S. Lindzen 1993 . Water vapor feedback and the ice-age snowline record . Ann. Geophys . 11 , 204 – 215 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article