During the late Quaternary period, a series of abrupt climate changes in the tropics and sub-tropics driven by changes in ocean circulation were both dramatic and disruptive.
tropics
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Raising Central American Orography Improves Climate Simulation
Elevation of Central American orography significantly reduces the pervasive tropical rainfall bias by blocking the easterlies and consequently warming the northeastern tropical Pacific.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Can We Observe How Cloud Clustering Affects the Radiation Budget?
Satellite observational analysis confirms that lower-atmospheric stability and cloud clustering are major factors modulating the tropical radiation budget that had been suggested by modeling studies.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Mysterious Engine of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation
Understanding the fundamental physics of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation, a phenomenon that occurs over the Indian and Pacific Oceans, remains a challenge in tropical atmospheric research.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Linking Hydrology and Biogeochemistry in a Tropical Urban Estuary
Low-lying coastal estuaries are intertwined with tropical cities around the world. Yet little is known about these water bodies, which affect millions of people globally.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Understanding Tropical Rainfall Projections Under Climate Change
A new mechanism explains changes in the probability distribution of tropical rainfall, which is not expected to change uniformly in a warming climate.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Examining the Structure of Tropical Cyclones’ Upper Levels
Unique observations used to examine the structure and mass balance of hurricanes’ top levels find that regions of high pressure violate the gradient wind balance.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Better Understanding of Tropical Cyclones
A new model of how anvil clouds form could improve short-term hurricane forecasts.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Diurnal Variation of Rainfall over the Equator Revisited
Radar data show an afternoon precipitation maximum in the equatorial Indian Ocean in addition to the nocturnal maximum; this occurs under light surface winds and suppressed large-scale convection.
Posted inScience Updates
Reconstructing Climate and Environment from Coral Archives
Tropical Coral Archives—Reconstructions of Climate and Environment Beyond the Instrumental Record at Society-Relevant Timescales; Bremen, Germany, 28 September 2017