Differences between More Divergent and More Rotational Types of Convectively Coupled Equatorial Waves. Part I: Space–Time Spectral Analyses

Abstract

recipitation-related differences in different types of convectively coupled equatorial waves are examined here and in a companion paper. Here the authors show spectra and cross-spectra among tropical-belt time sections of satellite-derived surface rain, infrared brightness temperature Tb, precipitable water (PW), and Japan Meteorological Agency reanalysis of divergence and PW.Cross-spectra between rain and divergence at 1000- and 200-hPa levels show significant coherence peaks oriented along the dispersion curves of Kelvin, n = 1 equatorial Rossby (ERn1), mixed Rossby?gravity (MRG), n = 0 eastward inertial gravity (EIGn0), and n = 1 and n = 2 westward inertial gravity (WIG) waves, as well as the spectral signatures of the Madden?Julian oscillation (MJO) and tropical depression (TD)-type disturbances. Middle-troposphere divergence (indicative of stratiform rain and half-depth convection involvement in the coupling) is coherent with rain for the higher-frequency and more divergent wave types (Kelvin, EIGn0, WIG) but shows little coherence with rain for more rotational disturbance types (ERn1, MRG, TD). These two broad families also exhibit different rain?PW phase lags, a result supportive of the notion that stratiform rain (which occurs in dry conditions after peak PW and rain) is more involved in the more divergent wave types.