The Role of Organized Unsaturated Convective Downdrafts in the Structure and Rapid Decay of an Equatorial Disturbance

The Line Islands Experiment, conducted on and near Palmyra, Fanning and Christmas Islands during February-April 1967, produced extensive data on disturbances of the equatorial trough zone. One disturbance which passed through the heart of the data network is analyzed in detail. This disturbance intensified rapidly just east of Fanning Island during the night of 31 March–1 April, but satellite observations show that it dissipated rapidly during the daylight hours of 1 April. The convergence-divergence patterns associated with the growth and decay of the disturbance are most intense in the lowest 500 m. Data from serial rawinsonde releases on the islands, combined with research aircraft data, are presented which demonstrate that highly unsaturated downdrafts are produced, first on the convective scale and the mesoscale, and finally becoming organized over the entire 600-km extent of the system. Cumulus development is effectively suppressed in the downdraft air, only being restored after 6–12 hr by the greatly enhanced energy flux from sea to atmosphere, and through the boundary layer. In order to produce the observed downdrafts, it is shown that the three-dimensional circulation patterns and thermodynamic processes within regions of intense convection are closely analogous to those in typical mid-latitude squall lines.