%0 Journal Article
%4 dpi.inpe.br/plutao/2012/11.28.19.17
%2 dpi.inpe.br/plutao/2012/11.28.19.17.07
%@doi 10.1155/2012/369567
%@issn 1687-9309
%F lattes: 5379515759830546 3 KouadioServMachLent:2012:HeRaEp
%T Heavy Rainfall Episodes in the Eastern Northeast Brazil Linked to Large-Scale Ocean-Atmosphere Conditions in the Tropical Atlantic
%D 2012
%A Kouadio, Yves K.,
%A Servain, Jacques,
%A Machado, Luiz Augusto Toledo,
%A Lentini, Carlos A. D.,
%@affiliation Laboratoire de Physique de l’Atmosphère (LPA), UFR-SSMT, Université de Cocody, 22 BP 582, Abidjan 22, Cote D'Ivoire
%@affiliation Fundação Cearense de Meteorologia e Recursos Hídricos (FUNCEME), Avenida Rui Barbosa 1246, Aldeota, 60115-221 Fortaleza, CE, Brazil; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR182-LOCEAN, Université de Paris VI, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, France
%@affiliation Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)
%@affiliation Instituto de Fisica, Departamento de Fisica da Terra e do Meio Ambiente, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Travessa Barão de Jeremoabo, s/n, Campus Ondina, 40170-280 Salvador, BA, Brazil
%@electronicmailaddress
%@electronicmailaddress
%@electronicmailaddress machado@cptec.inpe.br
%B Advances in Meteorology
%V 2012
%N Article ID 369567
%P 1-16
%X Relationships between simultaneous occurrences of distinctive atmospheric easterly wave (EW) signatures that cross the south-equatorial Atlantic, intense mesoscale convective systems (lifespan > 2 hour) that propagate westward over the western south-equatorial Atlantic, and subsequent strong rainfall episodes (anomaly > 10 mm·day−1) that occur in eastern Northeast Brazil (ENEB) are investigated. Using a simple diagnostic analysis, twelve cases with EW lifespan ranging between 3 and 8 days and a mean velocity of 8 m·s−1 were selected and documented during each rainy season of 2004, 2005, and 2006. These cases, which represent 50% of the total number of strong rainfall episodes and 60% of the rainfall amount over the ENEB, were concomitant with an acceleration of the trade winds over the south-equatorial Atlantic, an excess of moisture transported westward from Africa to America, and a strengthening of the convective activity in the oceanic region close to Brazil. Most of these episodes occurred during positive sea surface temperature anomaly patterns over the entire south-equatorial Atlantic and low-frequency warm conditions within the oceanic mixing layer. A real-time monitoring and the simulation of this ocean-atmosphere relationship could help in forecasting such dramatic rainfall events.
%@language en