Tropical Propagating Modes in the East Pacific ITCZ - Student: Lidia Huaman Chuquihauccha

Abstract

Organized tropical cloud systems that evolve over synoptic (3-5 day) time scales play an important role in the overall precipitation in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). This project aimed to improve the understanding and prediction of convective systems associated with tropical propagating modes, including Kelvin and easterly waves, in the East Pacific ITCZ using NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellites and NASA’s MERRA2 reanalysis as main tools. Additional emphasis was placed on how these propagating modes interact with the shallow and deep meridional overturning of the East Pacific, providing context for comparisons of convective interactions with meridional overturning in other tropical regions, like West Africa.