The relationship between convectively coupled waves and the East Pacific ITCZ

Abstract

Longstanding climate model biases in tropical precipitation exist over the east Pacific (EP) Ocean, especially during boreal winter and spring when models have excessive Southern Hemisphere (SH) precipitation near the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). In this study, we document the impact of convectively coupled waves (CCWs) on EP precipitation and the ITCZ using observations and reanalyses. We focus on the months when SH precipitation peaks in observations: February–April (FMA). CCWs explain 93% of total precipitation variance in the SH, nearly double the percent (48%) of the NH during FMA. However, we note that these percentages are inflated as they inevitably include the background variance. We further investigate the three leading high-frequency wave bands: mixed Rossby–gravity waves and tropical depression–type disturbances (MRG–TD type), Kelvin waves, and n = 0 eastward inertia–gravity waves (IG0). Compared to their warm pool counterparts, these three CCWs have a more zonally elongated and meridionally narrower precipitation structure with circulations that resemble past observational studies and/or shallow water theory. We quantify the contribution of all CCWs to four different daily ITCZ “states”: Northern Hemisphere (NH) (nITCZ), SH (sITCZ), double (dITCZ), and equatorial (eITCZ) using a new precipitation-based ITCZ-state algorithm. We find that the percent of total precipitation variance explained by each of the CCWs is heightened for sITCZs and eITCZs and diminished for nITCZs. Last, we find that nITCZs are most prevalent weeks after strong CCW activity happens in the NH, whereas CCWs and sITCZs peak simultaneously in the SH.