Variability in the General Circulation and Climate Processeson Seasonal and Interannual Time Scales

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This is a multifaceted program aimed at diagnosing and understanding the behavior of processes responsible for interannual fluctuations in the general circulation and climate. There are three parts to the investigation. The first part attempts to make better identification of the mechanisms responsible for the interannual variations in tropospheric temperature discovered under the current grant. The second intention is to explore the mechanisms responsible for interannual variations in globally-integrated atmospheric angular momentum with focus on the 1982-1983 El Nino event. The third task of the proposal is to diagnose the intra-annual fluctuations in the different components of diabatic heating and their role in generating available potential energy. The proposed investigation is very important because the intended comparisons between the large, model output and observed data sets will help to isolate the specific deficiencies in the global observing network and the existing GCM formulations, which should receive the highest priority by the scientific research community. Equally important, this proposal will provide better understanding of the atmospheric energy budget and angular momentum which could have significant implications for understanding the climate processes.