Spatial and Temporal Variability of the Three-Dimensional Flow around African Easterly Waves

摘要

This study presents a large-scale trajectory analysis of African easterly waves (AEWs) across West Africa and the eastern Atlantic. Back trajectories were initialized at multiple pressure levels from in and around the vortex center of the AEW troughs to reveal the source regions of environmental inflow. The trajectory analysis highlights a changing influence of environmental air onAEWtroughs. Over West Africa, monsoonal flow dominates with source regions of air from the southwest and east to northeast influencing the trough. As the AEW troughs leave West Africa, flow from the northwest becomes increasingly important. Cluster analysis highlighted that the contribution of trajectories from the northwest increased as the AEW troughs move westward and that this cluster also had high variability in environmental characteristics.