In the tropical western Pacific, regions of the highest sea surface temperature (SST) and the largest cloud cover are found to have the largest surface heating, primarily due to the weak evaporative cooling associated with weak winds. This situation is in variance with the suggestions that the temperature in the Pacific warm pool is regulated either by the reduced solar heating due to an enhanced cloudiness or by the enhanced evaporative cooling due to an elevated SST. It is clear that an enhanced surface heating in an enhanced convection region is not sustainable and must be interrupted by variations in large-scale atmospheric circulation. As the deep convective regions shift away from regions of high SST due primarily to seasonal variation and secondarily to interannual variation of the large-scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation, both trade wind and evaporative cooling in the high SST region increase, leading to a reduction in SST. We conclude that the evaporative cooling associated with the seasonal and interannual variations of trade winds in the primary factor that prevent the warm pool SST from increasing to a value much higher than what is observed.

This book contains 22 peer-reviewed articles that cover a spectrum of contemporary subjects relevant to atmospheric sciences, with specific applications to the Asia-Pacific region. The majority of these papers consist of a review of a scientific sub-field in atmospheric sciences, while some contain original contributions. All of the accepted papers were subject to scientific reviews and revisions.The book is divided into 2 traditional fields in atmospheric sciences: atmospheric dynamics and meteorology; and atmospheric physics and chemistry. The authors of these papers are distinguished alumni of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the National Taiwan University, residing in the USA and Taiwan. This book is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences that occurred in 2004.Papers in atmospheric dynamics and meteorology cover the following subjects: El Nino/Southern Oscillation, air/sea interactions, convection in the tropics, meiyu frontal systems, tropical cyclones/typhoons, data assimilations, and mesoscale modeling. In atmospheric physics and chemistry, subjects range from aerosols/clouds interactions, heat budgets in the context of air/sea interactions, atmospheric radiative transfer, remote sensing of the oceans, Asian dust outbreaks and clouds, reviews of cloud microphysics and urban ozone formations, to a satellite GPS system for typhoon studies and weather predictions.