Short-term Variability in the Moist Static Energy Budget Inferred from Satellite Observations

The thermodynamic variability of tropical atmosphere associated with the development of moist convection is investigated using satellite measurements from a range of platforms and instruments. Based on the analysis strategy devised by Masunaga (2013), the hourly to daily scale variability of moisture and moist static energy (MSE) convergences are derived from a coordination of TRMM, A-Train, and QuikSCAT sensors. Normalized gross moist stability (GMS; Neelin and Held 1987, Raymond et al. 2007) is then estimated as a measure of large-scale dynamics involving moist convection. GMS is found to decline toward zero before convection and gradually increase back to a positive value as the convection decays. To understand the observed behavior of GMS, large-scale vertical motion is derived from the observational constraint on moisture and thermal budget. The main results include: 1) the negative second baroclinic mode (congestus mode) enhances before convection, which is responsible for the initial reduction of GMS, 2) the rapid development of the first baroclinic mode (deep convection mode) follows and yields heavy precipitation, and 3) the second baroclinic mode switches its sign to positive (strartiform mode), resulting in the restoration of GMS, as deep convection diminishes.