THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO USE SATELLITE DATA TO UNDERSTAND PRECIPITATION AND LATENT HEATING DURING THE LIFECYCLE OF TROPICAL EASTERLY WAVES (TEWS) TO IMPROVE MODEL BIASES. TEWS ARE A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF WEATHER AND CLIMATE THEY OCCUR ACROSS THE ENTIRE TROPICS AND PLAY A FUNDAMENTAL ROLE IN MODULATING PRECIPITATION. TEWS ARE CRUCIAL FOR ORGANIZING PRECIPITATION EVENTS DURING THE WEST AFRICAN MONSOON IMPACT THE SOUTHWEST US DURING THE NORTH AMERICAN MONSOON AND ACT AS SEED DISTURBANCES FOR TROPICAL CYCLONES. WEATHER AND CLIMATE MODELS EXHIBIT LARGE BIASES IN TEWS THAT HAVE BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO DISCREPANCIES IN THE STRUCTURE AND INTENSITY OF PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS AND ASSOCIATED LATENT HEATING PROFILES. DESPITE THE IMPORTANCE OF TEWS AND DUE TO A LACK OF OBSERVATIONS ON APPROPRIATE TIME AND SPACE SCALES IN THE TROPICS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROCESSES THAT DRIVE HOW THESE WAVES DEVELOP PROPAGATE AND INTERACT WITH PRECIPITATION IS LIMITED. IN PARTICULAR THE TWO-WAY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEWS AND PRECIPITATION IS NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD. PREVIOUS WORK HAS FOCUSED ON WAVES IN WEST AFRICA BUT LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT HOW THE STRUCTURE AND LIFECYCLE OF TEWS VARIES ACROSS THE TROPICS. ALSO THE CONTRIBUTION OF LATENT HEATING TO THE ENERGY CYCLE OF TEWS HAS ONLY BEEN EXAMINED USING REANALYSIS DATA WHICH OFTEN PERFORMS POORLY IN THE TROPICS. WE HYPOTHESIZE THAT THE INTERACTION BETWEEN MOIST CONVECTION AND TEWS IS A MAJOR SOURCE OF WEATHER AND CLIMATE MODEL BIAS. TO ADDRESS THIS HYPOTHESIS WE REQUIRE A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF TEW PRECIPITATION. THIS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES: DETERMINE AND ANALYZE THE AMOUNT AND STRUCTURE OF PRECIPITATION OVER THE LIFECYCLE OF TEWS ACROSS THE TROPICS EXAMINE THE LATENT HEATING PROFILES WITHIN TEWS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH INTENSITY AND EVOLUTION DIAGNOSE VARIABILITY IN TEW PRECIPITATION PROCESSES SPATIALLY AND TEMPORALLY AND IDENTIFY AND UNDERSTAND DISCREPANCIES IN LATENT HEATING PROFILES OF TEWS IN MERRA-2 AND THE NASA-GISS CLIMATE MODEL. TO ACHIEVE THESE OBJECTIVES WE WILL USE SATELLITE-BASED DATASETS AND PRODUCTS INCLUDING 3B42 IMERG LATENT HEATING AND CONVECTIVE/ STRATIFORM CLASSIFICATION AND OTHER NASA DATASETS INCLUDING MERRA-2 AND CLIMATE MODEL OUTPUT. TEW IDENTIFICATION AND TRACKING WILL BE USED TO CREATE A WAVE DATABASE AND DEVELOP A GLOBAL CLIMATOLOGY OF THE OBSERVED SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF PRECIPITATION AND LATENT HEATING WITHIN TEWS. DIAGNOSTICS INCLUDING MEASURES OF THE LIFECYCLE TO CATEGORIZE PRECIPITATION STRUCTURE AND INTENSITY AND THE VERTICAL PROFILE OF LATENT HEATING IN LOCATIONS ACROSS THE TROPICS WILL BE DEVELOPED. THIS WILL IMPROVE OUR KNOWLEDGE OF PRECIPITATION PROCESSES AND BY COMPARISONS WITH REANALYSIS AND CLIMATE MODELS SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS WILL BE MADE TOWARDS IMPROVED MODELING AND PREDICTION. THIS PROJECT WILL USE SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS FOR A PHYSICAL PROCESS STUDY OF TEWS TO GAIN A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF PRECIPITATION THE GLOBAL WATER CYCLE CLIMATE WEATHER AND CONCOMITANT IMPROVEMENTS IN NUMERICAL MODELS. USING NASA S UNIQUE DATA WILL ENABLE US TO COMPREHENSIVELY UNDERSTAND PRECIPITATION ASSOCIATED WITH TEWS WHICH ARE RELEVANT TO GLOBAL AND REGIONAL VARIABILITY EXTREME EVENTS TROPICAL CONVECTION AND TROPICAL CYCLONES. WE WILL DIRECTLY ADDRESS COMPONENTS OF TWO EARTH SCIENCE GOALS: IMPROVING THE CAPABILITY TO PREDICT WEATHER AND EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS; AND ENABLING BETTER ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF WATER QUALITY AND QUANTITY TO ACCURATELY PREDICT HOW THE GLOBAL WATER CYCLE EVOLVES IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE. THIS WORK WILL ADDRESS THE PMM OBJECTIVES OF IMPROVING KNOWLEDGE OF PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS; AND IMPROVING WEATHER CLIMATE AND HYDROLOGICAL MODELING AND PREDICTION. THROUGH THIS WORK WE WILL BETTER UNDERSTAND STORM STRUCTURES WATER/ENERGY BUDGETS AND VARIABILITY AND LATENT HEATING IN AND AROUND THE TROPICS.