Modulations of the Net Tropospheric Temperature during GATE

Abstract

The net vertically integrated temperature of the GATE B army is analyzed at each rawinsonde observation time for all three phases. Temperatures are adjusted to remove persistent intership biases and errors induced by solar heating of the rawinsondes. Modulation of the net temperature by direct solar heating, secondary circulation processes and latent heat release are explored. Latent heat release does not warm the troposphere on the observed time (3?6 h) and space scales indicating that condensation heating is dispersed very rapidly from cloud-cluster-scale systems to larger circulations. The net temperature undergoes a regular diurnal temperature oscillation modulated primarily by direct radiational heating and indirect circulation. These processes are of comparable magnitudes.