Tropical Climatology


Drs. Paul A. Newman (NASA GSFC) and Darryn Waugh (Johns Hopkins) have put together this climatology of meteorological variables, water vapor, and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) to assist in the development of a tropical upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric mission. In particular, we wished to document the regions of the tropics as partitioned by the subtropical jets (via the zonal wind or the total wind), the regions of cold temperatures, and the regions of upwelling. In addition, MLS and HALOE water provide information on water minima and maxima, while the OLR provides information on the ITCZ location.

The plots have been standardized to Mercator projections centered on the equatorial dateline (0N and 180 E). Three basing sites are also indicated: Guam (13.5 N, 145 E), Honolulu (21.3 N, 157.4 W), and San Jose, Costa Rica (10 N, 84.2 E). A circle with a 2400 km radius is drawn around each of these sites to provide a maximum sampling radius for a typical 8-hour ER-2 flight.

1. Zonal wind averages

2. Total wind averages

3. Temperature averages

4. Velocity potential and stream function averages

5. Water vapor

6. Outgoing Longwave Radiation

7. T, OLR, Stream for all years (Jan. & July)

8. A few sondes (Jan. & July)

The met data used herein are derived from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis fields. NCEP and NCAR cooperated to produce a 40-year record of global analyses of atmospheric fields in support of the needs of the research and climate monitoring communities. This effort involved the recovery of land surface, ship, rawinsonde, pibal, aircraft, satellite and other data, quality controlling and assimilating those data with a data assimilation system which is kept unchanged over the reanalysis period 1957 through 1999. This eliminated perceived climate jumps associated with changes in the data assimilation system. Further details can be found at the NCEP/NCAR CDAS/Reanalysis Project homepage.


1. Zonal wind averages

These zonal wind averages are derived from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data from 1979-2000. Contours are indicated for every 5 m/s while their is a color change for every 2.5 m/s. Dashed line indicate easterly winds. The thick solid white lines are the stream lines derived from the zonal and meridional wind averages. The stream line values have been normalized by dividing by the Earth's radius.

  • January
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • February
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • March
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • April
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • May
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • June
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • July
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • August
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  • September
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  • October
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  • November
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  • December
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    2. Total wind averages

    These total wind averages are derived from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data from 1979-2000. The total wind is derived by averaging the zonal and meridional winds for the 22 year period, and then Utotal = sqrt(u^2+v^2). Contours are indicated for every 5 m/s while their is a color change for every 2.5 m/s. The thick solid white lines are the stream lines derived from the zonal and meridional wind averages. The stream line values have been normalized by dividing by the Earth's radius.

  • January
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  • February
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  • March
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  • April
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  • May
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • June
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • July
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • August
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • September
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • October
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • November
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • December
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    3. Temperature averages

    These temperature averages are derived from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data from 1979-2000. Contours are indicated for every 2 K while their is a color change for every 1 K. The thick solid white lines are the stream lines derived from the zonal and meridional wind averages. The stream line values have been normalized by dividing by the Earth's radius.

  • January
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  • February
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • March
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  • April
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  • May
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  • June
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  • July
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  • August
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  • September
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  • October
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  • November
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  • December
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    4. Velocity potential and stream function averages

    The velocity potential (color images) is derived from the divergent part of the wind field, while the streamlines (solid contours) are derived from the non-divergent part of the flow field. The divergent wind is calculated by taking the gradient of the velocity potential. Hence, air is diverging away from lows (blues and purples), and towards the highs (reds and oranges) in the color image. The divergent wind is proportional to the color spacing, and perpendicular to those color contours. The non-divergent wind is calculated by taking the curl of the streamlines. Hence, the non-divergent wind is proportional to the contour spacing, and parallel to those color contours. The stream line and velocity potential values have been normalized by dividing by the Earth's radius.

  • January
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  • February
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  • March
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  • April
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  • May
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  • June
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  • July
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  • August
  • 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB 50 MB
  • September
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  • October
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  • November
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  • December
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    5. MLS and HALOE water vapor

    The water vapor averages are derived from either the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) or HALogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) instruments on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). The 215 and 147 hPa data are averages of MLS water vapor from 1991-1997, and were kindly provided by Elizabeth Stone (see Stone, E., et al., 2000: "Spatial distributions of upper tropospheric water vapor measurements from the UARS Microwave Limb Sounder", J. Geophys. Res., 103, 12149-12161.). The 100 and 68 hPa data are averages of HALOE water vapor from 1991-2000, and were kindly provided by Bill Randel (see Randel, W.R., et al. 2000: "The seasonal variation of water vapor in the lower stratosphere observed by HALOE"). Contours are indicated every 10, 2, 0.4, 0.4 ppmv for the 215, 147, 100, and 68 hPa levels, respectively.

  • January
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • February
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • March
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • April
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • May
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • June
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • July
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • August
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • September
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • October
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • November
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB
  • December
  • 215 MB 147 MB 100 MB 68 MB

    6. Outgoing Longwave Radiation

    The Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) plots show 1979-1995 averages of interpolated OLR data obtained from the NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center (http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/). See Liebmann and Smith (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, June 1996) for description of the interpolation technique. Contour interval is every 10 W/m2.

  • Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

    7. T, OLR, Stream for all years (Jan. & July)

    Time avearges for indivuals year 1979-2002 for January and July

  • January 1979
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  • January 1980
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  • January 1981
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  • January 1982
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  • January 1983
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  • January 1984
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  • January 1985
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  • January 1986
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  • January 1987
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  • January 1988
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  • January 1989
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  • January 1990
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  • January 1991
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  • January 1992
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  • January 1993
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  • January 1994
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  • January 1995
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  • January 1996
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  • January 1997
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  • January 1998
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  • January 1999
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  • January 2000
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  • January 2001
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  • January 2002
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  • July 1979
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  • July 1980
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  • July 1981
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  • July 1982
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  • July 1983
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  • July 1984
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  • July 1985
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  • July 1986
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  • July 1987
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  • July 1988
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  • July 1989
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  • July 1990
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  • July 1991
  • 500 MB 400 MB 300 MB 250 MB 200 MB 150 MB 100 MB 70 MB
  • July 1992
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  • July 1993
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  • July 1994
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  • July 1995
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  • July 1996
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  • July 1997
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  • July 1998
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  • July 1999
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  • July 2000
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  • July 2001
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  • July 2002
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    8. Tropical sondes

    There are 3 color panels on each plot for Temperature (top), wind Speed (middle), and wind direction (bottom) as a function of altitude (0-20 km) and time (May 15 to July 15). The time-mean profiles are shown on each plot on the right hand side. The tropopause is indicated by the white line on each plot. The red ticks just above the temperature plot show the actual sonde launches. The color coding on the wind direction is indicated by the compass rose on the just below the wind direction chart (note that westerlies are red and easterlie are green.

  • Agama NAS (Guam)
  • January 1999 2000 2001 2002
    July 1999 2000 2001 2002
  • Kwajalein
  • January 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
    July 1999 2000 2001 2002
  • Truk
  • January 1999 2000 2001 2002
    July 1999 2000 2001 2002
  • Darwin
  • January 1999 2000 2001 2002
    July 1999 2000 2001 2002



    Dr. Paul A. Newman
    Code 916
    Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch
    Laboratory for Atmospheres
    NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
    Greenbelt, MD 20771

    Building 33, Room E320
    (301) 614-5985 fax: x-5903

    Last Updated: 2000-09-02
    Author: Dr. Paul A. Newman (NASA/GSFC, Code 916) (newman@notus.gsfc.nasa.gov)