Title: Applications of linear response functions in moist and jet dynamics

Abstract: For a number of problems in climate dynamics, it is useful to describe the system with a set of macroscopic state variables and consider the statistics of the other variables, which may involve highly nonlinear processes, to be smooth functions of this set of macroscopic variables. The utility of a linear approximation to these functions, namely the linear response functions, is illustrated with two examples in atmospheric dynamics. The first example is the stability of a moist convecting atmosphere, where the linear response functions are used to shed light on the dynamics of convectively coupled tropical waves and convective self-aggregation. The second example is the dynamics of the annular mode, where the linear response functions are used to quantify the strength of the eddy-mean-flow feedback.