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Changes of tropical sea-air interaction processes over a 30-year period

Abstract

RECENT investigations1–5 including radiosonde data from South–ern India6 have shown that the average tropospheric temperature in the tropics has increased since 1965 by nearly 1 °C. More importantly, the water vapour content of the middle troposphere has increased, above the equatorial Pacific, by 20–30%4,5. Here we report investigations on sea air interaction processes along the main shipping routes of equatorial oceans the only areas where there have been enough observations (Table 1) to provide a representative time series. The period 1949–79 was selected because of the general lack of bias in the air sea parameters with the exception of wind speed. The results indicate an intensification of the hydrological cycle, especially over the warmest oceans and they also suggest tropical circulation changes.

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Flohn, H., Kapala, A. Changes of tropical sea-air interaction processes over a 30-year period. Nature 338, 244–246 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/338244a0

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