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Superenhancement of Precipitation at the Center of Tropical Islands
Author(s) -
Ulrich Max,
Bellon Gilles
Publication year - 2019
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 - 10.1029/2019gl084947
Subject(s) - precipitation , sunset , climatology , sea breeze , front (military) , geology , oceanography , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , geography , physics , astronomy
We identified a canonical pattern of the diurnal cycle (DC) of precipitation on tropical islands, with exceptions for small and very large islands, using an 18‐year climatology of satellite estimates. Medium‐to‐large islands receive more precipitation than the surrounding ocean with superenhancement of precipitation in their center respective to their periphery. Differential heating of the island surface generates a sea breeze front (SBF) propagating inland in the afternoon, triggering precipitation. SBF segments from different coasts meet in the island center, further invigorating precipitation. Small islands exhibit neither DC nor precipitation enhancement most likely because ventilation prevents the genesis of the land‐sea breeze circulation. On the largest islands, the SBFs decay after sunset before reaching the center; hence, the superenhancement is not significant, also precipitation lasts longer and cloud remnants delay the DC on the next day, which we attribute to the presence of high mountains.