The Precipitation Response Over the Continental United States to Cold Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures
The dominant pattern of annual mean SST variability in the Pacific (in its cold phase) produces pronounced precipitation deficits over the continental United States (U.S.) throughout the annual cycle. This study investigates the physical and dynamical processes through which the cold Pacific pattern...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20140013014 2023-05-15T17:35:36+02:00 The Precipitation Response Over the Continental United States to Cold Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures Wang, Hailan Schubert, Siegfried D. Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available July 29, 2013 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140013014 unknown Document ID: 20140013014 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140013014 Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright CASI Geosciences (General) GSFC-E-DAA-TN10886 2013 ftnasantrs 2019-07-21T06:13:24Z The dominant pattern of annual mean SST variability in the Pacific (in its cold phase) produces pronounced precipitation deficits over the continental United States (U.S.) throughout the annual cycle. This study investigates the physical and dynamical processes through which the cold Pacific pattern affects the U.S. precipitation, particularly the causes for the peak dry impacts in fall, as well as the nature of the differences between the summer and fall responses. Results, based on observations and reanalyses, show that the peak precipitation deficit over the U.S. during fall is primarily due to reduced atmospheric moisture transport from the Gulf of Mexico into the central and eastern U.S., and secondarily due to a reduction in local evaporation from land-atmosphere feedback. The former is associated with a strong and systematic low-level northeasterly flow anomaly over the southeastern U.S. that counteracts the northwest branch of the climatological flow associated with the north Atlantic subtropical high. The above northeasterly anomaly is maintained by both diabatic heating anomalies in the nearby Intra-American Seas and diabatic cooling anomalies in the tropical Pacific. In contrast, the modest summertime precipitation deficit over the U.S. is mainly the result of local land-atmosphere feedback; the rather weak and disorganized atmospheric circulation anomalies over and to the south of the U.S. make little contribution. An evaluation of NSIPP-1 AGCM simulations shows it to be deficient in simulating the warm season tropical convection responses over the Intra-American Seas to the cold Pacific pattern and thereby the precipitation responses over the U.S., a problem that appears to be common to many AGCMs. Other/Unknown Material North Atlantic NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Pacific |
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Open Polar |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
op_collection_id |
ftnasantrs |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Geosciences (General) |
spellingShingle |
Geosciences (General) Wang, Hailan Schubert, Siegfried D. The Precipitation Response Over the Continental United States to Cold Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures |
topic_facet |
Geosciences (General) |
description |
The dominant pattern of annual mean SST variability in the Pacific (in its cold phase) produces pronounced precipitation deficits over the continental United States (U.S.) throughout the annual cycle. This study investigates the physical and dynamical processes through which the cold Pacific pattern affects the U.S. precipitation, particularly the causes for the peak dry impacts in fall, as well as the nature of the differences between the summer and fall responses. Results, based on observations and reanalyses, show that the peak precipitation deficit over the U.S. during fall is primarily due to reduced atmospheric moisture transport from the Gulf of Mexico into the central and eastern U.S., and secondarily due to a reduction in local evaporation from land-atmosphere feedback. The former is associated with a strong and systematic low-level northeasterly flow anomaly over the southeastern U.S. that counteracts the northwest branch of the climatological flow associated with the north Atlantic subtropical high. The above northeasterly anomaly is maintained by both diabatic heating anomalies in the nearby Intra-American Seas and diabatic cooling anomalies in the tropical Pacific. In contrast, the modest summertime precipitation deficit over the U.S. is mainly the result of local land-atmosphere feedback; the rather weak and disorganized atmospheric circulation anomalies over and to the south of the U.S. make little contribution. An evaluation of NSIPP-1 AGCM simulations shows it to be deficient in simulating the warm season tropical convection responses over the Intra-American Seas to the cold Pacific pattern and thereby the precipitation responses over the U.S., a problem that appears to be common to many AGCMs. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Wang, Hailan Schubert, Siegfried D. |
author_facet |
Wang, Hailan Schubert, Siegfried D. |
author_sort |
Wang, Hailan |
title |
The Precipitation Response Over the Continental United States to Cold Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_short |
The Precipitation Response Over the Continental United States to Cold Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_full |
The Precipitation Response Over the Continental United States to Cold Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_fullStr |
The Precipitation Response Over the Continental United States to Cold Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Precipitation Response Over the Continental United States to Cold Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_sort |
precipitation response over the continental united states to cold tropical pacific sea surface temperatures |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140013014 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20140013014 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140013014 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
_version_ |
1766134802948292608 |