Study of the Dynamics and Maintenance of the Intertropical Convergence Zones

热带辐合带（itcz）是地球大气中的气候特征，与热带大尺度经向环流（Hadley环流）和低纬度地面环流密切相关。ITCZ驱动经向环流单元，将动量和多余的热量从热带输送到中纬度地区，从而影响中纬度地区的斜压性，从而影响气候。此外，东太平洋过渡带似乎在厄尔尼诺/南方涛动的大气候波动中起作用。然而，维持热带辐合带的过程的动力学和能量学却知之甚少。本研究利用一般环流模式和简化的热带大气三层模式，探讨了ITCZ现象及其相关大尺度环流的维持。PI正在完成一系列精心设计的GCM实验，这些实验具有越来越复杂的强迫，探索地表边界加热（海面温度）和地形如何影响ITCZ的位置、强度、能量学和动力学。为了便于对GCM试验的解释，我们建立了一个三层热带大气模式（该模式明确地解析了边界层和自由斜压热带对流层环流）。这些结果有助于更好地确定ITCZ与大尺度经向和地面环流之间的关系，因此有助于我们对全球气候的认识。

The Intertropical Convergence Zones (ITCZs) are climatological features in the earth's atmosphere that are intimately tied to both the tropical large-scale meridional (Hadley) circulation and the low-latitude surface circulation. The ITCZ drives the meridional circulation cells which transport momentum and excess heat from the tropics to midlatitudes, thereby affecting the baroclinity of the midlatitudes and hence climate. In addition, the eastern Pacific ITCZ appears to play a role in the large El Nino/Southern Oscillation climate fluctuations. Yet the dynamics and energetics of the processes maintaining the Intertropical Convergence Zones are poorly understood. This study examines the maintenance of the ITCZ phenomenon and the associated large-scale circulation, using a General Circulation Model and a simplified 3-layer model of the tropical atmosphere. The PI is completing a series of carefully designed GCM experiments with increasingly complicated forcing that explores how the surface boundary heating (sea surface temperature) and orography affect the location, strength, energetics and dynamics of the ITCZ. A 3-layer model of the tropical atmosphere has been constructed and employed to facilitate the interpretation of the GCM experiments (this model explicitly resolves the boundary layer and the free baroclinic tropical tropospheric circulations). These results are helping to better define the relationship between the ITCZ and large-scale meridional and surface circulations, and hence are contributing to our knowledge of the global climate.