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Seasonality and mechanisms of tropical intraseasonal oscillations

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Abstract

This study has compared the monsoon intraseasonal oscillation (MISO) during the boreal summer and Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) during the boreal winter. Based on MISO and MJO in high-resolution three-dimensional diabatic heating, the possible mechanisms are discussed through observational analyses of dynamical and thermodynamical variables. The MISO and MJO are extracted as nonlinear oscillations during boreal summer and winter, respectively, by applying multi-channel singular spectrum analysis on daily anomalies of diabatic heating over the Indo-Pacific region. Lead and lag relations among moisture, temperature and surface fields relative to diabatic heating are analyzed to compare the mechanisms of MISO and MJO. While both the oscillations show eastward propagation, MISO has a strong northward propagation and MJO has a weak southward propagation as well. The analysis shows that MJO and MISO are essentially driven by the same mechanisms but with some difference in the meridional propagation. The westerly shear leads the diabatic heating, while the vorticity has weak correlation. Large-scale circulation creates positive moisture preconditioning before convection and negative moisture preconditioning before suppressed conditions. A positive lower level horizontal advection of temperature and upper level temperature tendencies lead the convective state while a negative lower level horizontal advection of temperature and upper level temperature tendencies lead the suppressed state. There is positive feedback from the SST to atmosphere. The difference in the meridional propagation of MISO and MJO is hypothesized to be because of the different differential heating meridionally during the two seasons.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Science Foundation (Grants ATM-0830062, ATM-0830068, AGS-1338427), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Grants NA09OAR4310058, NA14OAR4310160), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grants NNX09AN50G, NNX14AM19G).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Abheera Hazra & V. Krishnamurthy

  2. Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    V. Krishnamurthy

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  1. Abheera Hazra
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  2. V. Krishnamurthy
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Correspondence to Abheera Hazra.

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Hazra, A., Krishnamurthy, V. Seasonality and mechanisms of tropical intraseasonal oscillations. Clim Dyn 50, 179–199 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3596-y

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