Fig. 2.

Onset-relative low-pass filtered composites of area mean precipitation from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), ET and MFC from ERA-Interim, and net absorbed surface radiation from Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) Synoptic Radiative Fluxes and Clouds (SYN1Deg) (A); vertical distributions of RH (shading) and time rates of change in equivalent potential temperature ($\partial {\theta }_e/\partial t$; contour interval 0.02 K d⁻¹) computed from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) observations (B); surface air temperature and column water vapor (CWV) from AIRS (C); low (<700 hPa; $\sim$3 km above sea level), midlow (700–500 hPa; $\sim$3–5.5 km), midhigh (500–300 hPa; $\sim$5.5–10 km), high (>300 hPa; $\sim$10 km), and total cloud cover from CERES SYN1deg (D); solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) for rainforests from the Global Ozone Monitoring Instrument 2 and fire emissions of CO₂ from Version 3.1 of the Global Fire Emissions Database (E); conditional instability in the lower–middle troposphere (${\theta }_{e850}-{\theta }_{e500}$) based on AIRS and best-fit linear slopes of $\delta$D against specific humidity ($q$) in the free troposphere based on TES (F). Shaded areas in A and C–F and error bars in A and E illustrate estimated uncertainties. Data sources, quality control criteria, and uncertainty calculations are provided in SI Text.