Open AccessHow do Tropical Temperate Troughs Form and Develop over Southern Africa?
Author(s) -
Clémence Macron,
Benjamin Pohl,
Yves Richard,
Miloud Bessafi
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of climate
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.315
H-Index - 287
eISSN - 1520-0442
pISSN - 0894-8755
DOI - 10.1175/jcli-d-13-00175.1
Subject(s) - middle latitudes , climatology , baroclinity , outgoing longwave radiation , extratropical cyclone , hadley cell , atmospheric convection , convection , tropopause , temperate climate , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , tropics , atmospheric circulation , geology , troposphere , climate change , geography , meteorology , oceanography , general circulation model , botany , fishery , biology
16 pages ; Corrigendum Figure (Macron C, B Pohl, Y Richard & M Bessafi (2014) CORRIGENDUM. Journal of Climate, 27, 5198-5199. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00319.1)International audienceThis paper aims at separating the respective influences of tropical and midlatitude variability on the development and life cycle of tropical temperate troughs (TTTs) over southern Africa in austral summer (November-February). Cluster analysis is applied to 1971-2000 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) daily outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) anomalies to identify TTTs and monitor tropical convection. The same analysis applied to the zonal wind stretching deformation at 200 hPa (ZDEF) characterizes midlatitude transient perturbations. Results based on the comparison between these two classifications first confirm that midlatitude baroclinic waves are a necessary condition for TTT development, but they are not sufficient. Roughly 40% of those occurring in austral summer are associated with a TTT. They tend to be stronger than the baroclinic waves not associated with TTT development. In the tropics, additional conditions needed to form a TTT consist of an excess of latent energy over the Mozambique Channel, mostly because of moisture advections and convergence from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Taken together, these conditions are highly favorable for deep atmospheric convection over and near southern Africa and seem to explain a large fraction of TTT variability