Aspects of Tropical Meteorology: West Africa and North America

该项目将调查影响美国大陆夏季降雨的热带环流的一个关键组成部分：大西洋的热带风暴或飓风的形成和维持。经常在美国大陆登陆的大西洋飓风的起源是在非洲的东风波中，该项目将促进对控制非洲东风波活动的动力因素的理解。这些波本身被认为是由非洲东风急流的流体动力学不稳定引起的，陈博士的研究将利用现代再分析数据集来研究这种对流层低层急流的形成、维持和变化，这些数据集提供了关于环流和非热加热的丰富信息。这项诊断性研究将在卡尔森、伯皮和里德25年前的开创性分析的基础上，对非洲东风波形成和发展过程中涉及的动力和热力学相互作用进行新的评估。

The project will investigate the formation and maintenance of a key component of the tropical circulation that affects summer rainfall over continental United States: tropical storms, or hurricanes, in the Atlantic. The genesis of Atlantic hurricanes, which often make landfall over continental US, is in the African easterly waves, and the project will advance understanding of the dynamical factors controlling African easterly wave activity. The waves themselves are posited to arise from hydrodynamic instability of the African easterly jet, and Dr. Chen's research will examine the formation, maintenance, and variability of this lower tropospheric jet using the modern reanalysis data sets, which provide a wealth of information on circulation and diabatic heating. The diagnostic research will provide a new assessment of the dynamic and thermodynamic interactions involved in the formation and development of African easterly waves, building on the pioneering analyses of Carlson, Burpee, and Reed that date back a quarter century.