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Title: Role of Maritime Continent Land Convection on the Mean State and MJO Propagation

Journal Article · · Journal of Climate
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); Chonnam National Univ., Gwangju (Korea, Republic of)
  2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  3. Chonnam National Univ., Gwangju (Korea, Republic of)
  4. Seoul National Univ. (Korea, Republic of)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The Maritime Continent (MC) region is known as a ‘barrier’ in the life-cycle of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO). During boreal winter, the MJO detours the equatorial MC land region southward and propagates through the oceanic region. Also, about half of the MJO events that initiate over the Indian Ocean cease around the MC. The mechanism through which the MC affects MJO propagation, however, has remained unanswered. The current study investigates the MJO-MC interaction with a particular focus on the role of MC land convection. Using a global climate model that simulates both mean climate and MJO realistically, we performed two sensitivity experiments in which updraft plume radius is set to its maximum and minimum value only in the MC land grid points, making convective top deeper and shallower, respectively. In this work, our results show that MC land convection plays a key role in shaping the 3-D climatological moisture distribution around the MC through its local and non-local effects. Shallower and weaker MC land convection results in a steepening of the vertical and meridional mean moisture gradient over the MC region. The opposite is the case when MC land convection becomes deeper and stronger. The MJO’s eastward propagation is enhanced (suppressed) with the steeper (lower) mean moisture gradient. The moist static energy (MSE) budget of the MJO reveals the vertical and meridional advection of the mean MSE by MJO wind anomalies as the key processes that are responsible for the changes in MJO propagation characteristics. Our results pinpoint the critical role of the background moisture gradient on MJO propagation.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF); Korean Meteorological Administration; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016223; NA18OAR4310300; 80NSSC17K0227; KMI2018-03110; SC0019495
OSTI ID:
1659514
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1908829
Journal Information:
Journal of Climate, Vol. 33, Issue 5; ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 22 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Madden-Julian oscillation
General circulation models
Intraseasonal variability
Tropical variability