The Relationship between Wind Speed and Precipitation in the Pacific ITCZ

Abstract

Abstract The relationship between wind speed and precipitation in the Pacific ITCZ is analyzed using 4 yr of daily Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI) satellite passive microwave retrievals averaged over 2.5° boxes. Throughout the ITCZ, at high-column relative humidities (conditions under which deep convection is likely to occur), faster winds are associated with substantially more precipitation, explaining a small, but highly statistically significant fraction of daily rainfall variability. The slope of this relationship varies geographically and rapidly increases as the atmosphere becomes moister. Analysis of other data sources, including vector mean winds computed from QuikSCAT and area-averaged radar-derived precipitation estimates from Kwajalein Island, shows that the wind speed–precipitation correlation is robust. This relation provides a test of large-scale forecast models and insight into conceptual models of deep convection. The observed increases in precipitation are much greater than evaporation changes associated with the increased wind speed; this implies a convergence feedback by which evaporation induces moisture convergence that feeds increases in precipitation. The authors study whether the 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) and NCEP–NCAR reanalysis show the observed wind speed–precipitation correlation and explore mechanisms for convergence feedback using column-integrated moist static energy budgets computed from the reanalyses.