%0 Electronic Source
%4 sid.inpe.br/yolanda/2004/06.28.14.42
%2 sid.inpe.br/yolanda/2004/06.28.14.42.58
%T Tropical Atlantic Latent Heat Flux, Convection over Northeastern Brazil and PIRATA network
%D 2004
%9 On-line
%A Durand, Bruno,
%A Servain, Jacques,
%A Laurent, Henri,
%A Machado, Luis Augusto Toledo,
%@affiliation CPTEC-INPE-Cachoeira Paulista-12630-000-SP-Brasil
%I Instituto
%I Nacional
%I de
%I Pesquisas
%I Espaciais
%C São José dos Campos
%K Tropical Atlantic, heat fluxes, convective systems, PIRATA.
%X This work aims at studying the relationship between tropical Atlantic latent heat flux and convective cloud coverage over the Northeast of Brazil (NEB) during the four months of the main rainy season (February to May) in this region. The correlation with the anomalies of these data is investigated, without lag and with one-month lag (the heat flux in advance). In both cases, a significant positive correlation appears in the Northern Western Tropical Atlantic, and a significant negative correlation is obtained for a limited area off eastern NEB. These two correlation patterns are linked to anomalies in the trade wind intensity and in the meridional position of the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), that respectively relate to the latent heat flux anomalies and NEB convective coverage anomalies. The patterns obtained here show that the Northern Tropical Atlantic has a predominant influence on NEB, and that the key-region of the Southern Tropical Atlantic is only located around the NEB eastern coast. The impact of the Atlantic heat fluxes on the NEB convection is somewhat different of the classical meridional dipole related to the SST variability. The analysis of the horizontal moisture flux shows that during flood years an additional meridional inflow balances the eastward loss, and the upward velocity reinforced over NEB contributes to intensify NEB convection. The positive correlation pattern indicates that the location of the northern branch of the PIRATA (Pilot Research moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic) moorings is pertinent to monitor the ocean-atmosphere interface parameters. The negative correlation pattern off NEB provides new argumentation in the design of the possible extension of the PIRATA array towards the Brazilian coast. Complementary results at one-month lag and the real-time availability of the PIRATA data confirm the potentiality of NEB forecasting.
%@language English
%3 v1.pdf
%) sid.inpe.br/ePrint@80/2005/09.01.11.33