Interrelationships between Sea Surface Temperatures and Clouds over the Tropical Oceans

열대 해양의 해수면온도와 구름의 상호관계

The intra-annual and interannual variations of total, high, middle, low clouds, and cloud forcing net solar radiation flux, cloud forcing net long-wave radiation flux, and SSTs over the tropical oceans are investigated with the use of ISCP D2, NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis for January 1983-December 1993. The intra-annual variation of total cloudiness is dominated by high and middle clouds in the western Pacific and central tropical oceans, the interannual variation of total cloudiness is also dominated by high and middle clouds in the central Pacific and Atlantic. The dominant intra-annual and interannual EOFs of total cloudiness have spatially coherent link with those SSTs. For the interannual EOFs, total cloudiness and SSTs are related to E1 nino-Southern Oscillation(ENSO). The second most important intra-annual EOFs of total cloudiness are related to Inter Tropical Convergence Zone(ITCZ). The third most important intra-annual EOFs show coherent relation in the western Pacific. The correlation analysis between cloud radiative effects and SSTs show spatially coherent relation over the tropical oceans even though cloud forcing cooling effect is much higher than heating effect.