Evidence of the existence and eastward motion of superclusters at the Equator

A numerical experiment performed by Hayashi and Sumi (1986) with an atmospheric GCM has shown that moist convection in the equatorial region is spontaneously organized into a form of supercluster (an area of precipitation with a spatial extent of about 2000 km and an eastward propagation speed of about 15 m/sec. Here, the existence of superclusters in the real atmosphere is shown through a comparison between satellite observations and the GCM results. It is argued that eastward motion of convective activity occurs not only as the well-known property of the 30-60-day oscillation, but as a property of synoptic-scale disturbances at the equator.