Factors Controlling Rain on Small Tropical Islands: Diurnal Cycle, Large-Scale Wind Speed, and Topography

Abstract

A set of idealized cloud-permitting simulations is performed to explore the influence of small islands on precipitating convection as a function of large-scale wind speed. The islands are situated in a long narrow ocean domain that is in radiative–convective equilibrium (RCE) as a whole, constraining the domain-average precipitation. The island occupies a small part of the domain, so that significant precipitation variations over the island can occur, compensated by smaller variations over the larger surrounding oceanic area.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 25, 2017
Source ID
10.1175/jas-d-16-0344.1

Entities

People

  • Adam Sobel
  • Shuguang Wang

Organizations

  • Columbia University
  • Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences
  • Office of Naval Research

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Seismology