A Composite Satellite Study of the 1972-73 Easterly Waves in the Tropical Western Pacific.

摘要

In order to obtain further insight into the structure and properties of easterly waves in the tropical western Pacific, subjectively digitized satellite data for the latter half of the years 1972 and 1973, which possess respectively warm and cold sea-surface temperature anomalies, are analyzed using a compositing technique to obtain composites of percentage convective cloud cover during wave passage. The composites are then compared to composites of temperature, relative humidity and meridional winds. The results, in certain ways, are in agreement with those obtained previously by spectral analysis in the proposed structural tilt of the waves. Significant new results are also obtained. The effects of the local sea-surface temperature influence are most important only for the convective activity organized by the waves. On the other hand, the time-mean cloudiness is a factor of the larger-scale sea-surface temperature gradient and the associated Walker circulation.