Elevation of Central American orography significantly reduces the pervasive tropical rainfall bias by blocking the easterlies and consequently warming the northeastern tropical Pacific.
Tropical dynamics
Posted inEditors' Vox
Summer Monsoons: Regional Manifestations of a Global System
New insights from observations and theory suggest that the essential drivers of Earth’s summer monsoons are not as obvious as was previously thought.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
More Clustered Clouds Amplify Tropical Rainfall Extremes
Both satellite observations and model simulations reveal that more aggregated convection amplifies the increase in extreme rainfall events on a year-to-year basis.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Mysterious Engine of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation
Understanding the fundamental physics of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation, a phenomenon that occurs over the Indian and Pacific Oceans, remains a challenge in tropical atmospheric research.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How Does Convection Work Over the Tropics?
A new conceptual framework on how convection works in the tropics helps advance understanding of the contrast between land and ocean and how the tropics will respond to climate change.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Understanding Tropical Rainfall Projections Under Climate Change
A new mechanism explains changes in the probability distribution of tropical rainfall, which is not expected to change uniformly in a warming climate.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Examining the Structure of Tropical Cyclones’ Upper Levels
Unique observations used to examine the structure and mass balance of hurricanes’ top levels find that regions of high pressure violate the gradient wind balance.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Global Impacts of ENSO Reach into the Stratosphere
El Niño events have significant global impacts on weather and climate, but these reach up into the stratosphere, beyond the troposphere where most of Earth’s weather takes place.
Posted inScience Updates
The Stratosphere and Its Role in Tropical Teleconnections
Joint SPARC Dynamics and Observations Workshop; Kyoto, Japan, 9–14 October 2017
Posted inScience Updates
Around the World in 84 Days
In the Stratéole 2 program, set to launch in November 2018, instruments will ride balloons into the stratosphere and circle the world, observing properties of the air and winds in fine detail.