Large-Scale Dynamical Fields Associated with Convectively Coupled Equatorial Waves

Abstract

Convectively coupled equatorial waves, as previously detected in studies of wavenumber-frequency spectra of tropical clouds, are studied in more detail. Composite dynamical structures of the waves are obtained using linear regression between selectively filtered satellite-observed outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) data, and various fields from a global reanalysis dataset. The selective filtering of the OLR was designed to isolate the convective variations contributing to spectral peaks that lie along the equatorial wave dispersion curves for equivalent depths in the range of 12-50 m. The waves studied are the Kelvin, n 1 equatorial Rossby (ER), mixed Rossby-gravity, n 0 eastward inertio-gravity, n 1 westward inertio-gravity (WIG), and n 2 WIG waves.