Air-sea interaction processes are recognized as a key factor to drive tropical convection. It is well known that the atmosphere responds to the heat flux at the surface, related to the sea surface temperature and that rising motion tends to occur over warmer SSTs. Also, one has to consider the effects of the fresh-water flux on the SST structure. The variations at the sea surface temperatures associated with changes in ocean buoyancy due to precipitation influence further evolution of atmospheric convection.
In this paper we describe the development of a coupled ocean-atmosphere model to be used in two-dimensional cloud-resolving simulations of deep convection over TOGA-COARE. The atmospheric part of this modeling system is a two-dimensional, cloud-resolving version of the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS). The oceanic component is a two-dimensional version of the Princeton Ocean Model (POM). The exchange of mass, momentum, and energy is resolved using a combination of small horizontal grid spacing (that allows explicit representation of motions on the convective scale in the atmosphere) and very fine vertical resolution in the upper-ocean (that permits simulating the processes at the oceanic near-surface layer). Preliminary results suggest the existence of important feedbacks between the ocean mixed-layer and deep convection that can effectively alter the collective characteristics of the atmospheric systems.