Detecting Intraseasonal Climate Variability in the Tropics with Legacy Satellites

Intraseasonal variations dominate Tropical dynamics. In a previous study, we examine interseasonal variations using a novel dataset, combining imager and sounder data from legacy polar orbiting satellites. In the present study, we extend the methods from our previous work to examine intraseasonal tropical variability. Specifically, we analyze Convectively Coupled Equatorial Waves (CCEWs) by constructing wavenumber-frequency power spectra for various cloud types and infrared sounder channels. This approach is expected to yield additional insight into the cloud types associated with different modes of tropical intraseasonal variability, separating the impacts of individual cloud types beyond that possible by analyzing outgoing longwave radiation.