Biophysical Feedbacks in the Tropical Pacific

Biophysical Feedbacks in the Tropical Pacific

This study explores the influence of phytoplankton on the tropical Pacific heat budget. A hybrid coupled model for the tropical Pacific that is based on a primitive equation reduced-gravity multilayer ocean model, a dynamic ocean mixed layer, an atmospheric mixed layer, and a statistical atmosphere is used. The statistical atmosphere relates deviations of the sea surface temperature from its me...

Low cloud-SST feedbacks influence tropical Pacific climate variability

Biophysical Feedbacks on the Regional Climate System

Experiments with coupled atmosphere/biosphere models indicate that land degradation leads to a reduction in rainfall, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and runoff, and an increase in surface temperature and near surface winds. This talk discusses studies that have investigated the feedback of degradation in forest and other ecosystems on regional climate in the Sahel, the central U.S., South Am...

Atmospheric Feedbacks over the Tropical Pacific in Observations and Atmospheric General Circulation Models: An Extended Assessment

The dynamical and radiative feedbacks from the deep convection over the tropical Pacific are quantified using ENSO signal in that region for both the observation and 16 climate models. Different from a previous analysis, we recognize the nonlinear relationship between deep convection and SST over that region, and perform the evaluation using the data from the warm phase and the cold phase separ...

Salinity fronts in the tropical Pacific Ocean

This study delineates the salinity fronts (SF) across the tropical Pacific, and describes their variability and regional dynamical significance using Aquarius satellite observations. From the monthly maps of the SF, we find that the SF in the tropical Pacific are (1) usually observed around the boundaries of the fresh pool under the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), (2) stronger in boreal ...