TITLE:
Influence of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean’s Sea Surface Temperature in the Eastern Northeast Brazil Precipitation
AUTHORS:
Ana Cleide Bezerra Amorim, Rosane Rodrigues Chaves, Cláudio Moisés Santos e Silva
KEYWORDS:
Ocean-Atmosphere, Coastline, Heat Balance, Moisture Fluxes, Flux Divergence
JOURNAL NAME:
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences,
Vol.4 No.5,
November
26,
2014
ABSTRACT: An analysis of the rainfall of the Eastern
Northeast Brazil (ENEB) during the period from April to June and the processes
of ocean-atmosphere interaction were performed during different episodes of Sea
Surface Temperature (SST) inter-hemispheric gradient of Atlantic tropical
(GRAD). For this, we used a dataset covering the 1981 to 2010 period, composed
by: monthly data of accumulated precipitation of the Global Precipitation
Climatology Project (GPCP); surface fluxes obtained from reanalysis of the
National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP); vertically integrated
moisture flux divergence of the global model of European Centre for Medium
Range Forecasting (ECMWF) reanalysis; SST data from the NCEP. Seven GRAD_S
(southward SST gradient in the intertropical Atlantic) and five GRAD_N
(northward SST gradient in the intertropical Atlantic) were selected. When the
South Atlantic Ocean is warmer, the oceanic and atmospheric conditions are
favorable to higher monthly precipitation near to the ENEB. We also observed a
pronounced moisture convergence over parts of the ENEB during both, GRAD_S and
GRAD_N episodes. The weather phenomena that operates remotely amplifying or
inhibiting the rain also helps the rainy season; however, it appears that the
contribution was greater than the spatial distribution of rainfall intensity.