Moist Tropical Waves and the Basic State

众所周知，热带地区的天气对高纬度地区的天气有重要影响，包括美国大陆。该项目将提高对两种主要类型的热带天气模式的理解，即对流耦合开尔文波和马登朱利安振荡。解决这个问题将有助于回答几个长期存在的科学问题，例如为什么与马登朱利安振荡相关的降雨往往几乎只限于热带的印度太平洋地区？这些新知识将有助于推动更广泛的科学界努力改进天气和气候预测模型，为社会带来切实的好处。该项目还将为博士后科学家提供培训，并为代表性不足群体的本科生提供指导，从而帮助扩大未来劳动力的人口统计和技能。 具体而言，该项目将使用数值模型结合观测来研究这些扰动如何以及为什么被认为是由它们嵌入的局部基本状态（或环境）强烈调制的。该项目还将调查一种明显不同的对流耦合开尔文波的结构和机制，这种波的存在和传播关键取决于中纬度天气模式对热带地区的强迫。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Weather in the tropics is known to importantly affect weather at higher latitudes, including over the continental United States. This project will improve understanding of two prominent types of tropical weather patterns, known as convectively coupled Kelvin waves and the Madden Julian Oscillation. Addressing this issue will help to answer several longstanding scientific questions, such as why does rainfall associated with the Madden Julian Oscillation tend to be confined almost exclusively to the Indo-Pacific sector of the tropics? This new knowledge will help to bolster efforts by the broader scientific community aimed at improving models for predicting weather and climate, as a tangible benefit to society. The project will also provide training to a postdoctoral scientist and mentoring of undergraduate students from underrepresented groups, thereby helping to broaden the demographics and skills of the future workforce. Specifically, the project will use numerical models in conjunction with observations to investigate how and why these disturbances are both seen to be strongly modulated by the local basic state (or environment) in which they are embedded. The project will also investigate the structures and mechanisms of an apparently distinct class of convectively coupled Kelvin waves, whose existence and propagation depend crucially on forcing of the tropics by midlatitude weather patterns.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.