Thresholds for Atmospheric Convection in Amazonian Rainforests
Abstract
The Amazon rainforest is known as the “Green Ocean” for its maritime-like convection and cloud microphysics during the wet season. Although previous studies suggest the dominant thermodynamic processes involved in deep convection may differ between land and ocean, a comprehensive understanding of the thermodynamics of Amazonian convection is lacking. Using 404,971 daytime precipitating cloud profiles from the CloudSat satellite, we observe a regime transition from congestus dominance to cumulonimbus dominance when convective available potential energy exceeds a threshold in Amazonia and also in shrublands, but not in oceanic regions. In addition, the cloud regime transition is linked to boundary layer moisture in the two continental regions, while it is linked to lower-free-tropospheric moisture in the oceanic region. As the dry season progresses in Amazonia and modifies the free-tropospheric stability, a moderate plant water stress and increased incoming solar energy facilitate the initiation of deep convection and the onset of the wet season.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1611600
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1557899
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0011111
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 46; Journal Issue: 16; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Geology
Citation Formats
Wu, M., and Lee, J. ‐E. Thresholds for Atmospheric Convection in Amazonian Rainforests. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1029/2019gl082909.
Wu, M., & Lee, J. ‐E. Thresholds for Atmospheric Convection in Amazonian Rainforests. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019gl082909
Wu, M., and Lee, J. ‐E. Mon .
"Thresholds for Atmospheric Convection in Amazonian Rainforests". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019gl082909. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1611600.
@article{osti_1611600,
title = {Thresholds for Atmospheric Convection in Amazonian Rainforests},
author = {Wu, M. and Lee, J. ‐E.},
abstractNote = {The Amazon rainforest is known as the “Green Ocean” for its maritime-like convection and cloud microphysics during the wet season. Although previous studies suggest the dominant thermodynamic processes involved in deep convection may differ between land and ocean, a comprehensive understanding of the thermodynamics of Amazonian convection is lacking. Using 404,971 daytime precipitating cloud profiles from the CloudSat satellite, we observe a regime transition from congestus dominance to cumulonimbus dominance when convective available potential energy exceeds a threshold in Amazonia and also in shrublands, but not in oceanic regions. In addition, the cloud regime transition is linked to boundary layer moisture in the two continental regions, while it is linked to lower-free-tropospheric moisture in the oceanic region. As the dry season progresses in Amazonia and modifies the free-tropospheric stability, a moderate plant water stress and increased incoming solar energy facilitate the initiation of deep convection and the onset of the wet season.},
doi = {10.1029/2019gl082909},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 16,
volume = 46,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {8}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 4 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Convective cloud vertical velocity and mass-flux characteristics from radar wind profiler observations during GoAmazon2014/5
journal, November 2016
- Giangrande, Scott E.; Toto, Tami; Jensen, Michael P.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 121, Issue 21, p. 12,891-12,913
Deep Convection and Column Water Vapor over Tropical Land versus Tropical Ocean: A Comparison between the Amazon and the Tropical Western Pacific
journal, October 2016
- Schiro, Kathleen A.; Neelin, J. David; Adams, David K.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 73, Issue 10, p. 4043-4063
The Kain–Fritsch Convective Parameterization: An Update
journal, January 2004
- Kain, John S.
- Journal of Applied Meteorology, Vol. 43, Issue 1
Drought and Deforestation: Has Land Cover Change Influenced Recent Precipitation Extremes in the Amazon?
journal, January 2014
- Bagley, Justin E.; Desai, Ankur R.; Harding, Keith J.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 27, Issue 1
Cloud characteristics, thermodynamic controls and radiative impacts during the Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon2014/5) experiment
journal, January 2017
- Giangrande, Scott E.; Feng, Zhe; Jensen, Michael P.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 17, Issue 23
An Analysis of the Conditional Instability of the Tropical Atmosphere
journal, January 1993
- Williams, Erle; Renno, Nilton
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 121, Issue 1
Global distribution of convection penetrating the tropical tropopause
journal, January 2005
- Liu, Chuntao; Zipser, Edward J.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 110, Issue D23
Surface diurnal cycle and boundary layer structure over Rondônia during the rainy season
journal, January 2002
- Betts, Alan K.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 107, Issue D20
Spatial and temporal patterns of the recent warming of the Amazon forest: RECENT WARMING OF THE AMAZON FOREST
journal, June 2013
- Jiménez-Muñoz, Juan C.; Sobrino, José A.; Mattar, Cristian
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 118, Issue 11
A climatology of tropical congestus using CloudSat: A CLIMATOLOGY OF TROPICAL CONGESTUS
journal, June 2013
- Wall, Christina; Liu, Chuntao; Zipser, Edward
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 118, Issue 12
A Summary of Convective-Core Vertical Velocity Properties Using ARM UHF Wind Profilers in Oklahoma
journal, October 2013
- Giangrande, Scott E.; Collis, Scott; Straka, Jerry
- Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Vol. 52, Issue 10
High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change
journal, November 2013
- Hansen, M. C.; Potapov, P. V.; Moore, R.
- Science, Vol. 342, Issue 6160
Large-Scale Meteorology and Deep Convection during TRMM KWAJEX*
journal, February 2004
- Sobel, Adam H.; Yuter, Sandra E.; Bretherton, Christopher S.
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 132, Issue 2
Fog and rain in the Amazon
journal, August 2015
- Anber, Usama; Gentine, Pierre; Wang, Shuguang
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 37
Rainforest-initiated wet season onset over the southern Amazon
journal, July 2017
- Wright, Jonathon S.; Fu, Rong; Worden, John R.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 114, Issue 32
How well can CMIP5 simulate precipitation and its controlling processes over tropical South America?
journal, November 2012
- Yin, Lei; Fu, Rong; Shevliakova, Elena
- Climate Dynamics, Vol. 41, Issue 11-12
THE CLOUDSAT MISSION AND THE A-TRAIN: A New Dimension of Space-Based Observations of Clouds and Precipitation
journal, December 2002
- Stephens, Graeme L.; Vane, Deborah G.; Boain, Ronald J.
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 83, Issue 12
On the Controls of Daytime Precipitation in the Amazonian Dry Season
journal, December 2016
- Ghate, Virendra P.; Kollias, Pavlos
- Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 17, Issue 12
The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system
journal, April 2011
- Dee, D. P.; Uppala, S. M.; Simmons, A. J.
- Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 137, Issue 656
The Cumulus Parameterization Problem: Past, Present, and Future
journal, July 2004
- Arakawa, Akio
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 17, Issue 13
How Do Atmosphere and Land Surface Influence Seasonal Changes of Convection in the Tropical Amazon?
journal, May 1999
- Fu, Rong; Zhu, Bin; Dickinson, Robert E.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 12, Issue 5
A Mass-Flux Scheme View of a High-Resolution Simulation of a Transition from Shallow to Deep Cumulus Convection
journal, July 2006
- Kuang, Zhiming; Bretherton, Christopher S.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 63, Issue 7
The Amazon Boundary Layer Experiment: Wet season 1987
journal, January 1990
- Harriss, R. C.; Garstang, M.; Wofsy, S. C.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 95, Issue D10
Contrasting convective regimes over the Amazon: Implications for cloud electrification
journal, January 2002
- Williams, E.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 107, Issue D20
Moisture Vertical Structure, Column Water Vapor, and Tropical Deep Convection
journal, June 2009
- Holloway, Christopher E.; Neelin, J. David
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 66, Issue 6
Introduction: Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon2014/5)
journal, January 2016
- Martin, S. T.; Artaxo, P.; Machado, L. A. T.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 16, Issue 8
How Do Environmental Conditions Influence Vertical Buoyancy Structure and Shallow-to-Deep Convection Transition across Different Climate Regimes?
journal, June 2018
- Zhuang, Yizhou; Fu, Rong; Wang, Hongqing
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 75, Issue 6
Convective Available Potential Energy in the Environment of Oceanic and Continental Clouds: Correction and Comments
journal, December 1994
- Lucas, Christopher; Zipser, Edward J.; LeMone, Margaret A.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 51, Issue 24
Trimodal Characteristics of Tropical Convection
journal, August 1999
- Johnson, Richard H.; Rickenbach, Thomas M.; Rutledge, Steven A.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 12, Issue 8
CloudSat mission: Performance and early science after the first year of operation
journal, January 2008
- Stephens, Graeme L.; Vane, Deborah G.; Tanelli, Simone
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 113
Natural Convection as a Heat Engine: A Theory for CAPE
journal, February 1996
- Rennó, Nilton O.; Ingersoll, Andrew P.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 53, Issue 4
Root functioning modifies seasonal climate
journal, November 2005
- Lee, J. -E.; Oliveira, R. S.; Dawson, T. E.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 102, Issue 49
Vertical Velocity in Oceanic Convection off Tropical Australia
journal, November 1994
- Lucas, Christopher; Zipser, Edward J.; Lemone, Margaret A.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 51, Issue 21
Transition of the Large-Scale Atmospheric and Land Surface Conditions from the Dry to the Wet Season over Amazonia as Diagnosed by the ECMWF Re-Analysis
journal, July 2004
- Li, Wenhong; Fu, Rong
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 17, Issue 13
What controls the interannual variation of the wet season onsets over the Amazon?: Yin et al: Amazonian Wet Season Onset
journal, March 2014
- Yin, Lei; Fu, Rong; Zhang, Yong-Fei
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 119, Issue 5
Sea Surface Temperature, Surface Wind Divergence, and Convection over Tropical Oceans
journal, October 1987
- Graham, N. E.; Barnett, T. P.
- Science, Vol. 238, Issue 4827
Diurnal march of the convection observed during TRMM-WETAMC/LBA
journal, January 2002
- Machado, Luiz A. T.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 107, Issue D20
Rainfall estimation from TOGA radar observations during LBA field campaign
journal, January 2002
- Anagnostou, Emmanouil N.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 107, Issue D20
Characterizing tropical overshooting deep convection from joint analysis of CloudSat and geostationary satellite observations: TROPICAL DEEP CONVECTION BY CLOUDSAT
journal, January 2014
- Takahashi, Hanii; Luo, Zhengzhao Johnny
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 119, Issue 1
The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) sounding network: operations, processing and analysis
journal, January 2015
- Jensen, M. P.; Toto, T.; Troyan, D.
- Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, Vol. 8, Issue 1
The Transition to Strong Convection
journal, August 2009
- Neelin, J. David; Peters, Ole; Hales, Katrina
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 66, Issue 8
Hydraulic redistribution in three Amazonian trees
journal, August 2005
- Oliveira, Rafael S.; Dawson, Todd E.; Burgess, Stephen S. O.
- Oecologia, Vol. 145, Issue 3
Recent Amazon climate as background for possible ongoing and future changes of Amazon humid forests
journal, September 2015
- Gloor, M.; Barichivich, J.; Ziv, G.
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 29, Issue 9
Reply
journal, April 1996
- Lucas, Christopher; Zipser, Edward J.; Lemone, Margaret A.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 53, Issue 8
Robust increases in severe thunderstorm environments in response to greenhouse forcing
journal, September 2013
- Diffenbaugh, N. S.; Scherer, M.; Trapp, R. J.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 41
Critical phenomena in atmospheric precipitation
journal, May 2006
- Peters, Ole; Neelin, J. David
- Nature Physics, Vol. 2, Issue 6
X-band dual-polarization radar-based hydrometeor classification for Brazilian tropical precipitation systems
journal, January 2019
- Ribaud, Jean-François; Machado, Luiz Augusto Toledo; Biscaro, Thiago
- Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, Vol. 12, Issue 2
Deep Convective Organization, Moisture Vertical Structure, and Convective Transition Using Deep-Inflow Mixing
journal, April 2019
- Schiro, Kathleen A.; Neelin, J. David
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 76, Issue 4
The Green Ocean: precipitation insights from the GoAmazon2014/5 experiment
journal, January 2018
- Wang, Die; Giangrande, Scott E.; Bartholomew, Mary Jane
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 18, Issue 12
Smoking Rain Clouds over the Amazon
journal, February 2004
- Andreae, M. O.
- Science, Vol. 303, Issue 5662
A regional climate model study of how biomass burning aerosol impacts land-atmosphere interactions over the Amazon
journal, January 2008
- Zhang, Yan; Fu, Rong; Yu, Hongbin
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 113, Issue D14
The role of the permanent wilting point in controlling the spatial distribution of precipitation
journal, May 2018
- Hohenegger, Cathy; Stevens, Bjorn
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 115, Issue 22
Retrieval of ice cloud microphysical parameters using the CloudSat millimeter-wave radar and temperature
journal, January 2009
- Austin, Richard T.; Heymsfield, Andrew J.; Stephens, Graeme L.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 114
Seasonal variation of shallow-to-deep convection transition and its link to the environmental conditions over the Central Amazon: Shallow-to-Deep Convection Transition
journal, March 2017
- Zhuang, Yizhou; Fu, Rong; Marengo, José A.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 122, Issue 5
Overview: Precipitation characteristics and sensitivities to environmental conditions during GoAmazon2014/5 and ACRIDICON-CHUVA
journal, January 2018
- Machado, Luiz A. T.; Calheiros, Alan J. P.; Biscaro, Thiago
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 18, Issue 9
Global land use changes are four times greater than previously estimated
journal, May 2021
- Winkler, Karina; Fuchs, Richard; Rounsevell, Mark
- Nature Communications, Vol. 12, Issue 1
Introduction: Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon2014/5)
journal, January 2015
- Martin, S. T.; Artaxo, P.; Machado, L. A. T.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, Vol. 15, Issue 21
Critical phenomena in atmospheric precipitation
text, January 2006
- Peters, Ole; Neelin, J. David
- arXiv