PNNL

Abstract

Rotated EOF analyses are used to study the composition and variability of large-scale tropical diabatic heating profiles estimated from eight field campaigns. The results show that the profiles are composed of a pair of building blocks. These are the stratiform heating with peak heating near 400hpa and a cooling peak near 700hPa and convective heating with a heating maximum near 700hPa. Variations in the contributions of these building blocks account for the evolution of the large-scale heating profile. Instantaneous top (bottom) heavy large scale heating profiles associated with excess of stratiform (convective) heating evolve towards a stationary mean profile due to exponential decay of the excess stratiform (convective) heating.