CAREER: Understanding How Moist Processes Shape Tropical Motions in Observations and General Circulation Models

Expeditious advances in our understanding of tropical weather systems have been made during the last decade. However, there is still much to be learned, and many climate models still struggle to simulate the tropical weather systems. The goal of this project is to leverage recently developed theories to develop a series of criteria aimed at identifying the key physical processes that govern the tropical systems. These criteria will be used to evaluate the representation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation and tropical depression-like disturbances in climate models. The outcome of this study will elucidate the importance of water vapor-cloud interactions in the tropical weather systems, interactions that are currently not well-captured in climate models, and will identify opportunities to improve our current theoretical thinking of tropical weather systems. Along with training students and a postdoc, the work will also create high-quality educational resources for Spanish speakers in the form of a layperson-friendly podcast titled “Tiempo, Clima y Tierra” and educational online workshops for undergraduate students. Free-tropospheric water vapor plays an important role in the occurrence and organization of tropical convection. This realization has led to numerous advances in our understanding of tropical weather systems. One such advancement is the recognition that “moisture modes” may exist, a type of tropical system in which water vapor plays a central role in its evolution. Furthermore, there is evidence that horizontal moist static energy advection can play an important role in the development and growth of tropical depression-like systems, leading to “moisture-vortex instability.” This proposal will leverage these recent advancements in our theoretical understanding of tropical weather systems to develop a series of criteria aimed at identifying moisture modes and moisture-vortex instability in observations. Budget equations for the systems that are identified as moisture modes or growing from moisture-vortex instability will be compared with those from linear theory. The results of this analysis will be used to evaluate the representation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation and tropical depression-like waves in the various model simulations. The proposal will also produce high-quality educational resources for Spanish speakers in the form of a layperson-friendly podcasts and educational online workshops for undergraduate students. Even though Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world and one of the fastest-growing spoken languages in the US., there is a lack of high-quality educational resources that cover different topics of the geosciences in Spanish. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.