In the tropics, deep convection, which is often organized into convective systems, plays a crucial role in the water and energy cycles by significantly contributing to surface precipitation and forming upper-level ice clouds. The arrangement of these deep convective systems, as well as their individual properties, has recently been recognized as a key feature of the tropical climate. Using data from Africa and the tropical Atlantic Ocean as a case study, recent shifts in convective organization have been analyzed through a well-curated, unique record of METEOSAT observations spanning four decades. The findings indicate a significant shift in the occurrence of deep convective systems, characterized by a decrease in large, short-lived systems and an increase in smaller, longer-lived ones. This shift, combined with a nearly constant deep cloud fraction over the same period, highlights a notable change in convective organization. These new observational insights are valuable for refining emerging kilometer-scale climate models that accurately represent individual convective systems but struggle to realistically simulate their overall arrangement.

在热带地区，深对流通常被组织成对流系统，通过显著促进地表降水和形成高层冰云，在水和能量循环中起着至关重要的作用。这些深对流系统的布置及其各自的特性最近被认为是热带气候的一个关键特征。以来自非洲和热带大西洋的数据为案例研究，通过精心策划、独特的 METEOSAT 观测记录分析了对流组织的最新变化，跨越四十年。研究结果表明，深对流系统的发生发生了重大变化，其特征是大型、短寿命系统的减少和较小、寿命较长的系统的增加。这种变化，再加上同期几乎恒定的深云部分，突出了对流组织的显着变化。这些新的观测见解对于改进新兴的公里尺度气候模型很有价值，这些模型可以准确表示单个对流系统，但难以真实地模拟它们的整体布局。