Convective-Environmental Interactions in the Tropics

Abstract

During the four years of this grant performance, the PI and her research group have made a number of significant contributions toward better understanding convective processes over the Amazon. First, she made available to the broader community a two-year data set of convective storm metrics based on SIPAM radar data from the central Amazon that has been utilized widely. Second, her students analyzed cold pool and heating characteristics of Amazonian convection and showed in heretofore unknown ways how both can impact new convective initiation (e.g., through multiple cold pool interactions and gravity waves formed via pulsed heating). Finally, her group more broadly showed how Amazonian and Indian Ocean convection interacts with the large-scale environment, especially low-level winds (e.g., the nocturnal Amazonian low-level jet) and deeper tropospheric moisture, to help it organize and how this interaction is represented in climate models.