Satellite measurements of surface wind stress from the QuikSCAT scatterometer and sea surface temperature (SST) from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager are analyzed for the three-month period 21 July–20 October 1999 to investigate ocean–atmosphere coupling in the eastern tropical Pacific. Oceanic tropical instability waves (TIWs) with periods of...
The ability of six climate models to capture the observed coupling between SST and surface wind stress in the vicinity of strong midlatitude SST fronts is analyzed. The analysis emphasizes air–sea interactions associated with ocean meanders in the eastward extensions of major western boundary current systems such as the Gulf...
Intraseasonal precipitation variability over the northeast Pacific warm pool during June–October in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model 2.0.1 with a relaxed Arakawa–Schubert convection parameterization is found to be strongly sensitive to wind-induced variations in surface latent heat flux. A control simulation with interactive surface fluxes produces...
Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) wind and convection anomalies are locally amplified over the northeast Pacific warm pool during June–November. Composite analysis using NCEP reanalysis data indicates that perturbation available potential energy (PAPE) production through the positive correlation of intraseasonal temperature and convective diabatic heating anomalies supports the local intensification of MJO-related...
The effects of surface wind speed and direction gradients on midlatitude surface vorticity and divergence fields associated with mesoscale sea surface temperature (SST) variability having spatial scales of 100–1000 km are investigated using vector wind observations from the SeaWinds scatterometer on the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite and SST from the...
The intraseasonal variability of turbulent surface heat fluxes over the Gulf Stream extension and subtropical mode water regions of the North Atlantic, and long-term trends in these fluxes, are explored using NCEP–NCAR reanalysis. Wintertime sensible and latent heat fluxes from these surface waters are characterized by episodic high flux events...
Symbiosis is the close and protracted interaction between organisms. The molecular interactions that occur during symbiosis are complex with multiple barriers that must be overcome. Many Gram-negative, host-associated bacteria use a type III secretion system to mediate associations with their eukaryotic hosts. This secretion system is a specialized apparatus for...
Using a large eddy simulation (LES), the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is numerically modeled along 95°W from 8°S to 4°N during boreal autumn, and compared to observations from the East Pacific Investigation of Climate Processes in the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere System (EPIC) 2001. Since the local ABL winds are predominantly southerly...
During boreal summer and fall, there is a strong southerly boundary layer flow across the equator into the east Pacific intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). The modulation of this flow on synoptic to seasonal time scales is studied using an index of meridional pressure difference between the equator and the ITCZ...
The tropical Pacific Ocean is a climatically important region, home to El Niño and the Southern Oscillation. The simulation of its climate remains a challenge for global coupled ocean–atmosphere models, which suffer large biases especially in reproducing the observed meridional asymmetry across the equator in sea surface temperature (SST) and...