The Role of Water Vapor and Temperature in the Thermodynamics of Tropical Northeast Pacific and African Easterly Waves

Abstract

Abstract The thermodynamic processes associated with convection in tropical African and northeastern Pacific easterly waves (AEWs and PEWs, respectively) are examined on the basis of empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) and a plume buoyancy framework. Linear regression analysis reveals the relationship between temperature, moisture, buoyancy, and precipitation in EWs. Plume buoyancy is found to be highly correlated with rainfall in both AEWs and PEWs, and a near 1:1 relationship is found between a buoyancy-based diagnostic of rainfall and rainfall rates from ERA5. Close inspection of the contribution of moisture and temperature to plume buoyancy reveals that temperature and moisture contribute roughly equally to the buoyancy in AEWs, while moisture dominates the distribution of buoyancy in PEWs. A scale analysis is performed in order to understand the relative amplitudes of temperature and moisture in easterly waves. It is found that the smaller contribution of temperature to the thermodynamics of PEWs relative to AEWs is related to their slower propagation speed, which allows PEWs to more robustly adjust to weak temperature gradient (WTG) balance. The consistency of the buoyancy analysis and the scale analysis indicates that PEWs are moisture modes: waves in which water vapor plays a dominant role in their thermodynamics. AEWs, on the other hand, are mixed waves in which temperature and moisture play similar roles in their thermodynamics.