The Year of Tropical Convection (May 2008 to April 2010): Climate Variability and Weather Highlights
Waliser, Duane E. ; Moncrieff, Mitch ; Burrridge, David ; Fink, Andreas H. ; Gochis, Dave ; Goswami, B. N. ; Guan, Bin ; Harr, Patrick ; Heming, Julian ; Hsu, Huang-Hsuing ; Jakob, Christian ; Janiga, Matt ; Johnson, Richard ; Jones, Sarah ; Knippertz, Peter ; Marengo, Jose ; Nguyen, Hanh ; Pope, Mick ; Serra, Yolande ; Thorncroft, Chris ; Wheeler, Matthew ; Wood, Robert ; Yuter, Sandra
May 2008 to April 2010 provided a diverse array of scientifically interesting socially important weather and climate events that emphasizes the impact and reach of tropical convection over the globe. The representation of tropical convection remains a serious challenge to the skillfulness of our weather and climate prediction systems. To address this challenge, the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and World Weather Research Program (WWRP)/THORPEX are conducting a joint research activity consisting of a focus period approach along with an integrated research framework tailored to exploit the vast amounts of existing observations, expanding computational resources and the development of new, high-resolution modeling frameworks. The objective of the Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC) is to use these constructs to advance the characterization, modeling, parameterization and prediction of multi-scale tropical convection, including relevant two-way interactions between tropical and extra-tropical systems. This article highlights the diverse array of scientifically interesting and socially important weather and climate events associated with the WCRP-WWRP/THORPEX YOTC period of interest: May 2008 to April 2010. Notable during this two-year period was the change from cool to warm El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) states and the associated modulation of a wide range of smaller time and space scale tropical convection features. This period included a near record-setting wet N. American monsoon in 2008 and a very severe monsoon drought in India in 2009. There was also a plethora of tropical wave activity including easterly waves, the Madden-Julian Oscillation and convectively-coupled equatorial wave interactions. Numerous cases of high impact rainfall events occurred along with notable features in the tropical cyclone record. The intent of this article is to highlight these features and phenomena, and in turn promote their interrogation via theory, observations and models in concert with the YOTC program so that improved understanding and predictions of tropical convection can be afforded.
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