Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Assessments of surface latent heat flux associated with the Madden–Julian Oscillation in reanalyses

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To understand the accuracy and uncertainty of surface latent heat flux (LHF) associated with the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO), the LHF from each of the six global reanalysis datasets is compared with LHF based on in situ data and the objectively analyzed air–sea flux (OAFlux), in terms of tropical intraseasonal variability. The reanalysis products used in this study include the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Interim Reanalysis (ERA-I), the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA), three generations of reanalysis from the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP R1, R2 and CFSR), and the twentieth century reanalysis (20CR). We find that the intraseasonal LHF of the reanalysis products agrees well with the OAFlux over the tropical oceans in terms of patterns, but there is a significant spread in amplitude among the reanalysis products. Both ERA-I and MERRA show smaller biases in the power spectral analysis, while the other reanalysis products (NCEP R1, NCEP R2, CFSR, and 20CR) tend to overestimate the intraseasonal LHF when compared with the TAO buoy products and OAFlux. The role of anomalous LHF in supporting the MJO convection identified by previous TAO buoy data studies is confirmed by the long-term global reanalyses. The feature of increasing LHF accompanied by growing MJO observed in the recent MJO field campaign in the central Indian Ocean (DYNAMO/CINDY2011) is also well captured by the reanalysis products. Among the reanalysis datasets, MERRA has the smallest bias in temporal variability of LHF during the DYNAMO/CINDY2011 period.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Araligidad NM, Maloney ED (2008) Wind-driven latent heat flux and the intraseasonal oscillation. Geophys Res Lett 35:L04815. doi:10.1029/2007GL032746

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benedict JJ, Randall DA (2007) Observed characteristics of the MJO relative to maximum rainfall. J Atmos Sci 64:2332–2354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blade H, Hartmann DL (1993) Tropical intraseasonal oscillations in a simple nonlinear model. J Atmos Sci 50:2922–2939

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunke MA, Wang Z, Zeng X, Bosilovich M, Shie C-L (2011) An assessment of the uncertainties in ocean surface turbulent fluxes in 11 reanalysis, satellite-derived, and combined global datasets. J Clim 24:5469–5493

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang CP, Lim H (1988) Kelvin-wave CISK: a possible mechanism for the 30–50 day oscillations. J Atmos Sci 45:1709–1720

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Compo GP, Whitaker JS, Sardeshmukh PD, Matsui N, Allan RJ, Yin X, Gleason BE, Vose RS, Rutledge G, Bessemoulin P, Brönnimann S, Brunet M, Crouthamel RI, Grant AN, Groisman PY, Jones PD, Kruk M, Kruger AC, Marshall GJ, Maugeri M, Mok HY, Nordli Ø, Ross TF, Trigo RM, Wang XL, Woodruff SD, Worley SJ (2011) The twentieth century reanalysis project. Q J R Meteorol Soc 137:1–28. doi:10.1002/qj.776

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Szoeke SP, Edson JB, Marion JR, Fairall CW, Bariteau L (2015) The MJO and air–sea interaction in TOGA COARE and DYNAMO. J Clim 28:597–622

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duchon CE (1979) Lanczos filtering in one and two dimensions. J Appl Meteorol 18:1016–1022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emanuel KA (1987) An air–sea interaction model of intraseasonal oscillation in the tropics. J Atmos Sci 44:2324–2340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairall CW, Bradley EF, Hare JE, Grachev AA, Edson JB (2003) Bulk parameterization of air–sea fluxes: updates and verification for the COARE algorithm. J Clim 16:571–591

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fu X, Wang W, Lee J-Y, Wang B, Kikuchi K, Xu J, Li J, Weaver S (2015) Distinctive roles of air–sea coupling on different MJO events: a new perspective revealed from the DYNAMO/CINDY field campaign. Mon Weather Rev 143:794–812

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann DL, Maloney ED (2001) The Madden–Julian oscillation, barotropic dynamics, and North Pacific tropical cyclone formation. Part II: stochastic barotropic modeling. J Atmos Sci 58:2559–2570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes SP, Mangum LJ, Picaut J, Sumi A, Takeuchi K (1991) TOGA-TAO: a moored array for real-time measurements in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 72:339–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hendon HH, Salby ML (1994) The life cycle of the Madden–Julian oscillation. J Atmos Sci 51:2225–2237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins RW, Mo KC (1997) Persistent North Pacific circulation anomalies and the tropical intraseasonal oscillation. J Clim 10:223–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsu P-C, Li T (2012) Role of the boundary layer moisture asymmetry in causing the eastward propagation of the Madden–Julian oscillation. J Clim 25:4914–4931

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsu P-C, Li T, Tsou C-H (2011) Interactions between boreal summer intraseasonal oscillations and synoptic-scale disturbances over the western North Pacific. PartI: energetics diagnosis. J Clim 24:940–959

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsu P-C, Li T, Murakami H (2014) Moisture asymmetry and MJO eastward propagation in an aqua-planet general circulation model. J Clim 27:8747–8760

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu Q, Randall DA (1994) Low-frequency oscillations in radiative-convective systems. J Atmos Sci 51:1089–1099

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang X, Waliser DE, Olson WS, Tao W-K, L’Ecuyer TS, Li J-L, Tian B, Yung YL, Tompkins AM, Lang SE, Grecu M (2009) Vertical heating structures associated with the MJO as characterized by TRMM estimates, ECMWF reanalyses and forecasts: a case study during 1998–99 winter. J Clim 22:6001–6022. doi:10.1175/2009JCLI3048.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones C (2000) Occurrence of extreme precipitation events in California and relationships with the Madden–Julian oscillation. J Clim 13:3576–3587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones C, Weare BC (1996) The role of low-level moisture convergence and ocean latent heat fluxes in the Madden and Julian oscillation: an observational analysis using ISCCP data and ECMWF analyses. J Clim 9:3086–3140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalnay E et al (1996) The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 77:437–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanamitsu M, Ebisuzaki W, Woollen J, Yang S-K, Hnilo JJ, Fiorino M, Potter GL (2002) NCEP-DOE AMIP-IIreanalysis (R-2). Bull Am Meteorol Soc 83:1631–1643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kemball-Cook SR, Weare BC (2001) The onset of convection in the Madden–Julian oscillation. J Clim 14:780–793

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler WS, McPhaden MJ, Weickmann KM (1995) Forcing of intraseasonal Kelvin waves in the equatorial Pacific. J Geophys Res 100:10613–10631

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim D, Lee M-I, Kim D, Schubert SD, Waliser DE, Tian B (2014) Representation of tropical subseasonal variability of precipitation in global reanalyses. Clim Dyn 43:517–534. doi:10.1007/s00382-013-1890-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klingaman NP, Woolnough SJ (2014) The role of air–sea coupling in the simulation of the Madden–Julian oscillation in the Hadley Centre model. Q J R Meteorol Soc 140:2272–2286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krishnamurti TN, Oosterhof DK, Mehta AV (1988) Air–sea interaction on the time scale of 30 to 50 days. J Atmos Sci 45:1304–1322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lau K-M, Chan PH (1986) Aspects of the 40–50 day oscillation during the northern summer as inferred from outgoing longwave radiation. Mon Weather Rev 114:1354–1367

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lau WKM, Waliser DE (2005) Intraseasonal variability in the atmosphere–ocean climate system. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Liebmann B, Smith CA (1996) Description of a complete (interpolated) outgoing longwave radiation dataset. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 77:1275–1277

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindzen RS (1974) Wave-CISK in the tropics. J Atmos Sci 31:156–179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ling J, Zhang CD (2011) Structural evolution in heating profile of the MJO in global reanalyses and TRMM retrievals. J Clim 24:825–842

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madden RA, Julian PR (1971) Detection of a 40–50 day oscillation in the zonal wind in the tropical Pacific. J Atmos Sci 28:702–708

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madden RA, Julian PR (1972) Description of global-scale circulation cells in the tropics with a 40–50 day period. J Atmos Sci 29:1109–1123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madden RA, Julian PR (1994) Observations of the 40–50-day tropical oscillation: a review. Mon Weather Rev 122:814–837

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maloney ED, Hartmann DL (1998) Frictional moisture convergence in a composite life cycle of the Madden–Julian oscillation. J Clim 11:2387–2403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maloney ED, Sobel AH (2004) Surface fluxes and ocean coupling in the tropical intraseasonal oscillation. J Clim 17:4368–4386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhaden MJ (1995) The tropical atmosphere ocean array is completed. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 76:739–741

    Google Scholar 

  • McPhaden MJ, Meyers G, Ando K, Masumoto Y, Murty VSN, Ravichandran M, Syamsudin F, Vialard J, Yu L, Yu W (2009) RAMA: the research moored array for African–Asian–Australian monsoon analysis and prediction. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 90:459–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neelin JD, Held IM, Cook KH (1987) Evaporation-wind feedback and low-frequency variability in the tropical atmosphere. J Atmos Sci 44:2341–2348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rienecker MR et al (2011) MERRA: NASA’s modern-era retrospective analysis for research and applications. J Clim 24:3624–3648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saha S et al (2010) The NCEP climate forecast system reanalysis. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 91:1015–1057

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shinoda T, Hendon HH, Glick J (1998) Intraseasonal variability of surface fluxes and sea surface temperature in the tropical western Pacific and Indian oceans. J Clim 11:1685–1702

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shinoda T, Hendon HH, Glick J (1999) Intraseasonal surface fluxes in the tropical western pacific and Indian oceans from NCEP reanalyses. Mon Weather Rev 127:678–693

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simmons A, Uppala S, Dec D, Kobayashi S (2006) ERA-Interim: new ECMWF reanalysis products from 1989 onwards. ECMWF Newsletter, No. 110, ECMWF, Reading, pp 25–35

  • Sobel AH, Maloney ED, Bellon G, Frierson DM (2010) Surface fluxes and tropical intraseasonal variability: a reassessment. J Adv Model Earth Syst. doi:10.3894/JAMES.2010.2.2

    Google Scholar 

  • Tian B, Waliser DE, Fetzer EJ, Lambrigtsen BH, Yung YL, Wang B (2006) Vertical moist thermodynamic structure and spatial–temporal evolution of the MJO in AIRS observations. J Atmos Sci 63:2462–2485

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vecchi GA, Bond NA (2004) The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) and northern high latitude wintertime surface air temperatures. Geophys Res Lett 31:L04104. doi:10.1029/2003GL018645

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waliser DE (2006) Intraseasonal variability. In: Wang B (ed) The Asian monsoon. Springer, Berlin, pp 203–257

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wang B (1988) Comments on “An air–sea interaction model of intraseasonal oscillation in the tropics”. J Atmos Sci 45:3521–3525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang B (2005) Theory. In: Lau WKM, Waliser DE (eds) Intraseasonal variability in the atmosphere, ocean climate system. Springer, Berlin, pp 307–351

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wang B, Rui H (1990) Synoptic climatology of transient tropical intraseasonal convection anomalies: 1975–1985. Meteorol Atmos Phys 44:43–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang W, Xie P, Yoo S-H, Xue Y, Kumar A, Wu X (2011) An assessment of surface climate in the NCEP climate forecast system reanalysis. Clim Dyn 37:1601–1620

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler MC, Hendon HH (2004) An all-season real-time multivariate MJO index: development of an index for monitoring and prediction. Mon Weather Rev 132:1917–1932

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler MC, Kiladis GN (1999) Convectively coupled equatorial waves: analysis of clouds and temperature in the wavenumber–frequency domain. J Atmos Sci 56:374–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woolnough SJ, Slingo JM, Hoskins BJ (2000) The relationship between convection and sea surface temperature on intraseasonal timescales. J Clim 13:2086–2104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yasunari T (1979) Cloudiness fluctuations associated with the Northern Hemisphere summer monsoon. J Meteorol Soc Jpn 57:227–242

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoneyama K, Zhang C, Long CN (2013) Tracking pulses of the Madden–Julian oscillation. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 94:1871–1891

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu L, Weller RA (2007) Objectively analyzed air–sea heat fluxes for the global ice-free oceans (1981–2005). Bull Am Meteorol Soc 88:527–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu L, Jin X, Weller RA (2008) Multidecade global flux datasets from the objectively analyzed air–sea fluxes (OAFlux) project: latent and sensible heat fluxes, ocean evaporation, and related surface meteorological variables. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, OAFlux Project Technical Report

  • Zhang C (2005) Madden–Julian oscillation. Rev Geophys 43:RG2003. doi:10.1029/2004RG000158

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang C (2013) Madden–Julian oscillation: bridging weather and climate. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 94:1849–1870

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang C, Gottschalck J (2002) SST anomalies of ENSO and the Madden–Julian oscillation in the equatorial Pacific. J Clim 15:2429–2445

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang C, McPhaden MJ (2000) Intraseasonal surface cooling in the equatorial western Pacific. J Clim 13:2261–2276

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. We also thank Dr. Lisan Yu and Dr. Gil Compo for their help in understanding the OAFlux and 20CR products, respectively. Y. Gao and P. C. Hsu were supported by the NSF of China (Grant 41375100), the China National 973 Project (2015CB453200), the NSF of Jiangsu Province (BK20140046), and the Specially-Appointed Professor by universities in Jiangsu Province. H. H. Hsu was supported by NSC 100-2119-M-001-029-MY5. This is the ESMC contribution number 078.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Laboratory on Climate and Environment Change and Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China

    Yingxia Gao & Pang-Chi Hsu

  2. Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Huang-Hsiung Hsu

Authors
  1. Yingxia Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pang-Chi Hsu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Huang-Hsiung Hsu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pang-Chi Hsu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gao, Y., Hsu, PC. & Hsu, HH. Assessments of surface latent heat flux associated with the Madden–Julian Oscillation in reanalyses. Clim Dyn 47, 1755–1774 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2931-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2931-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation