This chapter reviews the progress made in the past decade in understanding tropical Atlantic climate variability. In addition to an equatorially anti-symmetric seasonal cycle forced directly by the seasonal march of the sun, Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) displays a pronounced annual cycle on the equator that results from continental monsoon forcing and air-sea interaction. This cycle i...

[1] Here we present near-annually resolved oxygen isotope records from two species of planktic foraminifera from the Cariaco Basin that reflect sea surface temperature (SST) and Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) precipitation-related salinity variations over the Caribbean and tropical North Atlantic spanning the last 2000 years. A strong, broad spatial pattern of correlation exists between ...

The seasonal response of rainfall over tropical South America to a shutdown in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is examined, HadGEM3 model simulations where freshwater added north Atlantic. Potential biases these are explored by comparing unperturbed simulation with observations. In this simulation, years when latitude Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) realistic, provi...

The water soluble inorganic part of the submicrometer aerosol was measured from two research vessels over the Indian Ocean during the winter monsoon season (February and March) as part of the INDOEX project in 1998 and 1999. Additional measurements were made of gas phase SO2 from one of the vessels in 1999. All samples collected north of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone, ITCZ, were clearly a...

Dominant spatio-temporal patterns of joint sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level pressure (SLP) variability in the Atlantic Ocean are identified using a multivariate frequency domain analysis. Five significant frequency-bands a r e isolated ranging from the quasi-biennial to the quasi-decadal. Two quasi-biennial bands are centered around 2.2 and 2.7-year periods; two interannual bands a r...

Empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) and composites analysis were employed on pentad data in order to investigate the tropical atmospheric-ocean patterns over the Atlantic Ocean and the spatial-temporal characteristics of the rainfall in eastern Amazon during the peak of the rainy season (February to April). The EOF results evidenced that the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is the main ra...

Abstract Global tropical cyclone (TC) frequency is investigated in a 50‐km‐resolution aquaplanet model forced by zonally symmetric sea surface temperature (SST). TC per unit area found to be proportional the Coriolis parameter at intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), as defined latitude of maximum precipitation. As SST shifted northward from equator, precipitation moves and increases. When pas...

The interannual variability of the location of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is strongly (R5 0.75) correlated with the atmospheric heat transport across the equator (AHTEQ) over the satellite era (1979–2009). A 18 northward displacement of the ITCZ is associatedwith 0.34PWof anomalousAHTEQ fromnorth to south. The AHTEQ and precipitation anomalies are both associated with an intensif...

This study investigates the effect of mesoscale eddies on air–sea heat and fresh water exchange in tropical Atlantic Ocean (TAO) using 8 years satellite altimetry data, combined with sea surface temperature (SST), latent sensible fluxes (LHF SHF), infrared (IRF) precipitation (PR) data. Results indicate that approximately ∼40% cyclonic contribute to warm SST anomalies, anticyclonic cold anomali...

tropical southern Pacific Authors: Jennifer C. Wei, V. R. Kotamarthi, D. J. Wuebbles Abstract. Significant seasonal variations in the concentrations of ozone, NOx, nonmethane hydrocarbons and other trace gases were observed in the southern tropical Pacific during the PEM-TROPICS-A (PT-A, Sep/Oct 1996) and PEM-TROPICS-B (PT-B, Mar/Apr 1999). Making these data sets more useful would require devel...