Interaction of African Easterly Waves and Moist Convection

This study examines the impact of moist convection on the origin and evolution of African easterly waves (AEWs). From previous studies, two pathways for the role of moist convection can be identified. One is the direct effect in which mesoscale convection may potentially trigger AEWs by perturbing the background flow. Another is through the enhancement of the instability of the environment. We use observations, gridded model analyses and idealized numerical simulations to further examine these issues. In particular, we investigate the interaction of moist convection and hydrodynamic instability of easterly wave packets evolving in a streamwise varying environment.