This study analyzes data obtained by intensive observation during a pilot field campaign of the Years of the Maritime Continent Project (Pre-YMC) to investigate the diurnal cycle of precipitation in the western coastal area of Sumatra Island. The diurnal cycle during the campaign period (November–December 2015) is found to have a number of similarities with statistical behavior of the diurnal cycle as revealed by previous studies, such as afternoon precipitation over land, nighttime offshore migration of the precipitation zone, and dependency on Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) phase. Composite analyses of radiosonde soundings from the Research Vessel (R/V) Mirai, deployed about 50 km off the coast, demonstrate that the lower free troposphere starts cooling in late afternoon (a couple of hours earlier than the cooling in the boundary layer), making the lower troposphere more unstable just before precipitation starts to increase. As the nighttime offshore precipitation tends to be more vigorous on days when the cooling in the lower free troposphere is larger, it is possible that the destabilization due to the cooling contributes to the offshore migration of the precipitation zone via enhancement of convective activity. Comparison of potential temperature and water vapor mixing ratio tendencies suggests that this cooling is substantially due to vertical advection by an ascent motion, which is possibly a component of shallow gravity waves. These results support the idea that gravity waves emanating from convective systems over land play a significant role in the offshore migration of the precipitation zone.

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This paper describes an analysis of multiyear satellite datasets to characterize the modulations of convective versus stratiform rain, rain system size, and column water vapor by convectively coupled equatorial waves. Composites are built around space–time filtered equatorial-belt data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42 rainfall product, while TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) and passive microwave data are the composited variables. The results are consistent with the more reanalysis-dependent findings in Part I, indicating that higher-frequency (or more divergent) waves, such as Kelvin and inertia–gravity families, modulate mesoscale convective systems and stratiform rain relatively more, whereas slower (or more rotational) types such as Rossby, mixed Rossby–gravity, and tropical depression (TD) or “easterly” waves primarily modulate convective rain and smaller-sized precipitation systems. Column water vapor composites indicate that the more rotational wave types modulate the moisture field more pronouncedly than do the divergent waves, leading the authors to speculate that the slow/rotational versus fast/wavelike distinction in precipitation characteristics may correspond to the different balances of two main convective coupling mechanisms: moisture control of cumulus cells versus convective inhibition control (via low-level density waves) of mesoscale convective systems. The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) is unique in that it exhibits prominent modulation of both stratiform precipitation (like the fast divergent waves) and small-sized precipitation features, convective rainfall, and moisture (like the other low-frequency, rotational waves). A composite of other waves’ amplitudes as a function of MJO amplitude and phase shows that divergent waves are more active in the developing phase and rotational waves are more active in the decaying rather than developing phase of the MJO.

Precipitation-related differences in different types of convectively coupled equatorial waves are examined here and in a companion paper. Here the authors show spectra and cross-spectra among tropical-belt time sections of satellite-derived surface rain, infrared brightness temperature T b , precipitable water (PW), and Japan Meteorological Agency reanalysis of divergence and PW.Cross-spectra between rain and divergence at 1000-and 200-hPa levels show significant coherence peaks oriented along the dispersion curves of Kelvin, n 5 1 equatorial Rossby (ERn1), mixed Rossby-gravity (MRG), n 5 0 eastward inertial gravity (EIGn0), and n 5 1 and n 5 2 westward inertial gravity (WIG) waves, as well as the spectral signatures of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) and tropical depression (TD)-type disturbances. Middle-troposphere divergence (indicative of stratiform rain and half-depth convection involvement in the coupling) is coherent with rain for the higher-frequency and more divergent wave types (Kelvin, EIGn0, WIG) but shows little coherence with rain for more rotational disturbance types (ERn1, MRG, TD). These two broad families also exhibit different rain-PW phase lags, a result supportive of the notion that stratiform rain (which occurs in dry conditions after peak PW and rain) is more involved in the more divergent wave types.

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A new diagnostic framework is developed and applied to ERA-Interim to quantitatively assess vertical velocity (omega) profiles in the wavenumber–frequency domain. Two quantities are defined with the first two EOF–PC pairs of omega profiles in the tropical ocean: a top-heaviness ratio and a tilt ratio. The top-heaviness and tilt ratios are defined, respectively, as the cospectrum and quadrature spectrum of PC1 and PC2 divided by the power spectrum of PC1. They represent how top-heavy an omega profile is at the convective maximum, and how much tilt omega profiles contain in the spatiotemporal evolution of a wave. The top-heaviness ratio reveals that omega profiles become more top-heavy as the time scale (spatial scale) becomes longer (larger). The MJO has the most top-heavy profile while the eastward inertio-gravity (EIG) and westward inertio-gravity (WIG) waves have the most bottom-heavy profiles. The tilt ratio reveals that the Kelvin, WIG, EIG, and mixed Rossby–gravity (MRG) waves, categorized as convectively coupled gravity waves, have significant tilt in the omega profiles, while the equatorial Rossby (ER) wave and MJO, categorized as slow-moving moisture modes, have less tilt. The gross moist stability (GMS), cloud–radiation feedback, and effective GMS were also computed for each wave. The MJO with the most top-heavy omega profile exhibits high GMS, but has negative effective GMS due to strong cloud–radiation feedbacks. Similarly, the ER wave also exhibits negative effective GMS with a top-heavy omega profile. These results may indicate that top-heavy omega profiles build up more moist static energy via strong cloud–radiation feedbacks, and as a result, are more preferable for the moisture mode instability.

Tropospheric moisture is a key factor controlling the global climate and its variability. For instance, moistening of the lower troposphere is necessary to trigger the convective phase of a Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO). However, the relative importance of the processes controlling this moistening has yet to be quantified. Among these processes, the importance of the moistening by shallow convection is still debated. The authors use high-frequency observations of humidity and convection from the Research Vessel (R/V) Mirai that was located in the Indian Ocean ITCZ during the Cooperative Indian Ocean Experiment on Intraseasonal Variability/ Dynamics of the MJO (CINDY/DYNAMO) campaign. This study is an initial attempt to directly link shallow convection to moisture variations within the lowest 4 km of the atmosphere from the convective scale to the mesoscale. Within a few tens of minutes and near shallow convection occurrences, moisture anomalies of 0.25-0.5 g kg 21 that correspond to tendencies on the order of 10-20 g kg 21 day 21 between 1 and 4 km are observed and are attributed to shallow convective clouds. On the scale of a few hours, shallow convection is associated with anomalies of 0.5-1 g kg 21 that correspond to tendencies on the order of 1-4 g kg 21 day 21 according to two independent datasets: lidar and soundings. This can be interpreted as the resultant mesoscale effect of the population of shallow convective clouds. Large-scale advective tendencies can be stronger than the moistening by shallow convection; however, the latter is a steady moisture supply whose importance can increase with the time scale. This evaluation of the moistening tendency related to shallow convection is ultimately important to develop and constrain numerical models.

SUMMAR YTo study crustal rock seismic anisotropy and its effect on seismic wave propagation, we measure the seismic velocity anisotropy of two amphibolites, one biotite gneiss and one biotite schist from the Hidaka metamorphic belt in central Hokkaido, Japan, under confining pressures up to 150 MPa. The rock microstructures show foliation and lineation characterized by lattice preferred orientation (LPO) of hornblende or biotite. P-and two S-wave velocities are measured along the direction perpendicular to the foliation plane and two directions in the foliation plane: perpendicular and parallel to the lineation. We assume orthorhombic symmetry based on the rock microstructures and obtain Tsvankin's anisotropic parameters (an extension of Thomsen's parameters for orthorhombic symmetry). P-and S-wave phase velocity surfaces are calculated from anisotropy parameters and compared with the measured velocities along particular directions and with the velocity contour maps calculated from the Voigt averages of singlecrystal elastic constants based on the orientation of measured LPO data. Qualitatively, the measured velocity anisotropy agrees with the velocity contour calculated from the LPO data, although large quantitative differences exist between them. All anisotropy patterns can be approximated as transverse isotropy or its modification, appearing as orthorhombic symmetry. Biotite schist (containing 30 per cent volume ratio biotite) shows strong S-wave anisotropy, and the phase velocity surfaces of P waves show a large deviation from ellipticity in the plane perpendicular to the foliation and parallel to the lineation. In the same plane, S waves show a singularity due to a large bulge of the SV velocity surface.