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The Walker circulation, diabatic heating, and outgoing longwave radiation
Author(s) -
Stechmann Samuel N.,
Ogrosky H. Reed
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl062257
Subject(s) - outgoing longwave radiation , diabatic , climatology , longwave , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , equator , circulation (fluid dynamics) , atmospheric circulation , meteorology , atmosphere (unit) , satellite , radiation , convection , physics , geology , latitude , mechanics , adiabatic process , astronomy , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics
For the tropical atmosphere on planetary scales, it is common to model the circulation using strong damping. Here with new data analysis techniques, evidence suggests that damping can actually be neglected. Specifically, near the equator, the east‐west overturning circulation is in agreement with the undamped wave response to atmospheric heating. To estimate the heating, satellite observations of outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) are used. Frequently, OLR is used as a heuristic indicator of cloudiness. Here the results further suggest that OLR variations are actually proportional to diabatic heating variations, with a proportionality constant of 18 W m −2 (K d −1 ) −1 . While the agreement holds best over long time averages of years or decades, it also holds over shorter periods of one season or 1 month. Consequently, it is suggested that the strength of the Walker circulation—and its evolution in time—could be estimated using satellite data.