1476 JOURNAL OF CLIMATE VOLUME 16 A Further Study of the Tropical Western Hemisphere Warm Pool
Variability of the tropical Western Hemisphere warm pool (WHWP) of water warmer than 28.5�C, which extends seasonally over parts of the eastern North Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the western tropical North Atlantic (TNA), was previously studied by Wang and Enfield using the da Sil...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2002
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.118.4694 http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/docs/whwp_journal.pdf |
| Summary: | Variability of the tropical Western Hemisphere warm pool (WHWP) of water warmer than 28.5�C, which extends seasonally over parts of the eastern North Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the western tropical North Atlantic (TNA), was previously studied by Wang and Enfield using the da Silva data from 1945–93. Using additional datasets of the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis field and the NCEP SST from 1950–99, and the Levitus climatological subsurface temperature, the present paper confirms and extends the previous study of Wang and Enfield. The WHWP alternates with northern South America as the seasonal heating source for the Walker and Hadley circulations in the Western Hemisphere. During the boreal winter a strong Hadley cell emanates northward from the Amazon heat source with subsidence over the subtropical North Atlantic north of 20�N, sustaining a strong North Atlantic anticyclone and associated northeast (NE) trade winds over its southern limb in the TNA. This circulation, including the NE trades, is weakened during Pacific El Niño winters and results in a spring warming of the TNA, which in turn induces the development of an unusually large summer warm pool and a wetter Caribbean rainy season. As the WHWP develops in the late boreal spring, the center of tropospheric heating and convection shifts to the WHWP region, whence the summer Hadley circulation emanates from the WHWP and forks into the subsidence |
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