A Study of Heat and Moisture Budgets in the Intense Winter Monsoon over the Warm Ocean Current

Abstract The large-scale sensible and latent beat budgets in the intense winter monsoon over the Kuroshio region are studied with the AMTEX 74 and 75 observations. Energy variables involved in the sensible heat balance and latent beat balance are computed and examined from the surface to 100 mb. They are also compared with the sensible and latent heat supplies from the sea surface, which are independently estimated. The large-scale vertical and horizontal transport processes are important in the local balance of sensible and latent heat. The adiabatic conversion term is also significant in the balance of sensible heat. The boundary layer of the atmosphere appears to be a persistent source of sensible and latent beat. The existence of the apparent sensible and latent heat sources above the boundary layer seems to be related to the prevailing synoptic pattern and existing meso-convective systems. When the winter monsoon dominates over the warm sea, considerable heat energy is transferred from the sea surfac...