Dear Colleagues,

Precipitation is one of the most important aspects of the climate; it largely determines the occurrence of floods and droughts and is also a major energy source for atmospheric circulation. In particular, tropical precipitation has received much attention as a substantial component of the hydrological cycle and a key influencer of global weather and climate patterns.

Decades have passed since satellites first identified the effects of sea surface temperature and atmospheric circulation on tropical precipitation. While precipitation is sensitive to variations in both the amplitude and the spatial structure of sea surface temperature, a substantial portion of tropical precipitation variation is generated from atmospheric dynamics alone. On the other hand, variations in precipitation can in turn affect the ocean via cloud radiation, as well as the atmospheric circulation via latent heating. The coupled nature of tropical precipitation makes it one of the most fascinating subjects of climate dynamics.

While advancements in modeling and observation have vastly improved our understanding of tropical precipitation, there remain several fundamental challenges. Under the modeling point of view, many difficulties remain in estimating and simulating rainfall, especially in the tropical area, such as difficulties in assimilating synoptic rain data, to highly selective parameterization schemes for convection and microphysics, up to the correct description of the entire water cycle, there are many open problems for both local and synoptic scale applications, and from a short to a long term approach.

At seasonal timescales, the timing and the evolution of major monsoon systems, such as the Indian, the Australian, and the west African monsoon, as well as the seasonality of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, remain areas of intense research and development. While it is clear that tropical modes of climate variability such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole exert a strong influence on both monsoon systems and the Intertropical Convergence Zone, our knowledge is often confined to good statistical characterizations rather than a true process-based understanding. At inter-annual timescales, these tropical modes are able to explain only a modest fraction of the variance associated with tropical precipitation variability, and new theories and understanding are needed to minimize this large portion of unexplained variability. At the centennial and longer timescales, tropical precipitation constitutes the most uncertain aspects of future precipitation projections. It has long been recognized that much of the uncertainty in future tropical precipitation changes is rooted in its coupling with changes in the underlying sea surface temperature, but reducing such uncertainty has remained a challenge.

The goal of this Special Issue is to improve the understanding and prediction of tropical precipitation at all timescales and at a wide range of geographical scales, using an observational and numerical approach. We invite reports on both observational and modeling studies of the effect of ocean and atmosphere on tropical precipitation. Manuscripts may present the original research or review recent works, thereby providing context to the current research and the direction in which the field is moving.

Dr. ‪Jie He
Dr. Antonio Ricchi
Dr. Giovanni Liguori
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• air-sea interactions and ocean heat content role in tropical HPE events
• precipitation variability and change
• tropical meteorology
• convective parameterization
• numerical model applications using coupled and uncoupled approach
• precipitation in tropical cyclones
• ENSO impact on rainfall in tropical zone
• precipitations in past, present and future scenarios