What is it about?

A phase space is defined to describe large-scale moisture transport by using two terms: moisture advection and moisture tendency caused by dynamical convergence. Sectors in the phase space are linked to certain familiar combinations of cloud types and precipitation patterns. The method is then used to evaluate a general circulation model in terms of its simulation of the relationship between cloud properties and moisture transport.

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Why is it important?

The phase space thus constructed is efficient in description of ways of moisture transport and can be used to connect weather patterns (a realization of cloud type combinations) to large-scale moisture transport.

Perspectives

This is a methodology development. However, the phase-space method has been used to link phases of moisture transport to Indian monsoon intraseasonal oscillation, structures of extratropical cyclones, and global oceanic fresh water exchange.

Sun Wong
JPL/California Institute of Technology

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Responses of Tropical Ocean Clouds and Precipitation to the Large-Scale Circulation: Atmospheric-Water-Budget-Related Phase Space and Dynamical Regimes, Journal of Climate, October 2016, American Meteorological Society,
DOI: 10.1175/jcli-d-15-0712.1.
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