The Stirring Tropics: The Ubiquity of Moisture Modes and Moisture–Vortex Instability

Schematic depiction that shows the relative contribution of the meridional advection of background MSE by the anomalous winds ($-⟨{\upsilon }^{\prime }{\partial }_y\overline{m}⟩$) and the advection of the MSE anomalies by the mean zonal wind ($-⟨\overline{u}{\partial }_x{m}^{\prime }⟩$) to the propagation and growth of the MSE anomalies in the (a) TD-like and (b) equatorial Rossby waves. Blue and brown bars represent the process responsible for the propagation and maintenance of the moisture modes. The regions considered for the analysis of the TD-like and equatorial Rossby waves are represented by light red squares (see Table 1 for more details).

Citation: Journal of Climate 37, 6; 10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0145.1