The role of low-level convective heating in tropical weather and climate

The heating associated with precipitating convective systems in the
tropics is a fundamental driver of the large-scale circulation. While
past work has stressed the importance of upper level heating associated
with the stratiform rain and anvil components of MCSs, certain weather
and climate phenomena appear to be more sensitive to low-level
convective heating based on theory and models (including reanalyses).
These phenomena include the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) in the
Indian Ocean and the Walker circulation in the Pacific Ocean. While
shallow convective clouds are prevalent in both of these basins,
observational retrievals simply do not match the magnitude of low-level
convective heating suggested by theory and models during the initiation
of the MJO in the central Indian Ocean and in the descending branch of
the Walker circulation in the East Pacific. This presentation will show
the state-of-the-art representation of heating in these basins based on
modern reanalyses and satellite observations and will address whether
the clouds we observe are capable of the low-level response being
attributed to them.