Seasonal emergence and circulation coupling of moist layers over the tropical 
Atlantic

Prange, Marc; Stevens, Bjorn; Buehler, Stefan A.

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Seasonal emergence and circulation coupling of moist layers over the tropical Atlantic

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Stevens, Bjorn
Director’s Research Group, Department Climate Physics, MPI for Meteorology, Max Planck Society;

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Geophysical Research Letters - 2024 - Prange - Seasonal Emergence and Circulation Coupling of Moist Layers Over the.pdf
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2024gl108865-sup-0001-supporting information si-s01.pdf
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Citation

Prange, M., Stevens, B., & Buehler, S. A. (2024). Seasonal emergence and circulation coupling of moist layers over the tropical Atlantic. Geophysical Research Letters, 51(15): e2024GL108865. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL108865.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000F-BCA4-4

Abstract

Abstract Mid-tropospheric elevated moist layers (EMLs) near the melting level have been found in various regional observational studies in the tropics. Recently, a preponderance of EMLs in the presence of aggregated convection was found in cloud resolving simulations of radiative convective equilibrium (RCE), highlighting a significant circulation coupling. Here, we present global monthly EML occurrence rates based on reanalysis, yielding a broader view on where and when EMLs occur in the real world. Over the Atlantic, EML occurrence follows a seasonal cycle that maximizes in summer, aligning with maximized ITCZ intensity and organization. Resembling the results in RCE, the large-scale circulation over the Atlantic shifts from a deep overturning in January to a bottom-heavy circulation in July. While EMLs embedded in the July cross-equatorial Hadley cell are found to be sourced from the ITCZ, EMLs north of the ITCZ emerge from the strongly sheared zonal flow over West Africa.