Influence of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean’s Sea Surface Temperature in the Eastern Northeast Brazil Precipitation

An analysis of the rainfall of the Eastern Northeast Brazil (ENEB) during the period from April to June and the processes of ocean-atmosphere interaction were performed during different epi-sodes of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) inter-hemispheric gradient of Atlantic tropical (GRAD). For this, we us...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atmospheric and Climate Sciences
Main Authors: Amorim, Ana Cleide Bezerra, Chaves, Rosane Rodrigues, Silva, Cláudio Moisés Santos e
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Scientific Research Publishing 2014
Subjects:
Ocean-atmosphere
Coastline
Heat balance
Moisture fluxes
Flux divergence
South Atlantic Ocean
Online Access:https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/28861
https://doi.org/10.4236/acs.2014.45077
Description
Summary:An analysis of the rainfall of the Eastern Northeast Brazil (ENEB) during the period from April to June and the processes of ocean-atmosphere interaction were performed during different epi-sodes of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) inter-hemispheric gradient of Atlantic tropical (GRAD). For this, we used a dataset covering the 1981 to 2010 period, composed by: monthly data of accu-mulated precipitation of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP); surface fluxes ob-tained from reanalysis of the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP); vertically in-tegrated moisture flux divergence of the global model of European Centre for Medium Range Fo-recasting (ECMWF) reanalysis; SST data from the NCEP. Seven GRAD_S (southward SST gradient in the intertropical Atlantic) and five GRAD_N (northward SST gradient in the intertropical Atlantic) were selected. When the South Atlantic Ocean is warmer, the oceanic and atmospheric conditions are favorable to higher monthly precipitation near to the ENEB. We also observed a pronounced moisture convergence over parts of the ENEB during both, GRAD_S and GRAD_N episodes. The weather phenomena that operates remotely amplifying or inhibiting the rain also helps the rainy season; however, it appears that the contribution was greater than the spatial distribution of rainfall intensity.

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