Synoptic scale tropical waves in multichannel satellite radiance data /
| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1988.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | ProQuest, Abstract Link to OAKTrust copy |
| Abstract: | Diagnosis of tropical weather systems on the synoptic scale is limited severely by a near total absence of conventional in situ observations, particularly over the North Pacific. Analysis procedures are developed to minimize the limitations of satellite sounding data: compositing of numerous events to increase the data coverage and thereby fill in gaps due to cloud contamination and smooth the contamination associated with individual satellite passes; Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) decomposition to account for the high vertical correlation within observations; averaging and filtering to isolate and identify weak and poorly observed signals; and, nonlinear regression to quantify previously detected synoptic signals. Three months (January-March 1984) of multichannel radiance data from sounders on NOAA-7 and 8 are analyzed to extract the synoptic scale information content. Two synoptic systems are isolated and investigated: tropical plumes; and, a 2800 km tropospheric thermal wave believed to be a newly observed feature of the tropical atmosphere. Seventeen tropical plumes are composited at 12 h time increments from 48 h before until 96 h after plume initiation. The composite model shows that previous plume case studies are typical of the composite model. Deleting the climatological mean from the composite proved that the pre-initiation signal is primarily a result of climatology and large scale semi-stationary waves. The EOF decompositions demonstrated that the synoptic signals found in individual case studies are consistent with the composite. These decompositions also display the existence of a tropospheric thermal wave aligned closely with the tropical plume. The tropospheric thermal wave is a vertical mode three zonal wave; its extrema are located approximately at 300, 700 and 900 mb and it moves eastward at about 4.5 to 6.5 m s^-1. It possesses no detectable moisture structure. Its detection was facilitated by removal of the dominant stationary variance pattern and by the wave's consistent alignment with respect to tropical plumes. This latter feature implies that the wave is a causal factor in plume development... |
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| Item Description: | Typescript (photocopy). Vita. "Major subject: Meteorology." |
| Physical Description: | xii, 117 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |