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Role of topography on the MJO in the maritime continent: a numerical case study

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Abstract

The role of topography on a Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) event in the Maritime Continent (MC) is explored using a regional model. Four simulations are conducted: lower-resolution (12 km) simulations using cumulus parameterization in the presence (LR) and absence (LR-Flat) of topography, and higher-resolution (4 km) simulations without cumulus parameterization in the presence (HR) and absence (HR-Flat) of topography. In the LR simulation, the MJO remains unorganized with no clear eastward propagation, while the LR-Flat simulation captures the MJO and its eastward propagation across the MC. In the absence of cumulus parameterization, both HR and HR-Flat capture the MJO and show several similarities and differences compared to the LR and LR-Flat simulations. To better understand these differences, a moisture budget analysis is conducted during the passage of the MJO. In the LR-Flat simulation, vertical advection of moisture is increased to the east of the islands, leading to continuity in MJO-associated convection, continuity that was not present in the LR simulation. The increase in vertical advection in the absence of topography is due to an increase in the mean moisture advection by the anomalous vertical winds. In the middle of the MC, horizontal advection seems to be the most important for an uninterrupted eastward propagation of the MJO. The increase in the horizontal advection in the absence of topography is primarily due to an increase in the anomalous moisture advection by the mean zonal winds. To what extent the MJO was influenced by the upstream effect from the New Guinea topography was also explored. These results indicate that the important physical processes for MJO-associated convection may be different in different parts of the MC. Further implications of these results in the context of other recent studies on MJO propagation across the MC are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The simulations were conducted at the Florida Tech using the high-performance computing cluster ‘Blueshark’, which was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This work was partially supported by Grants from the NSF (1323400) and the ONR (N00014-1601-3091) to PR and ONR (N00014-16WX-01752) to BB. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the NSF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, 32904, USA

    Haochen Tan & Pallav Ray

  2. US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, USA

    Bradford S. Barrett

  3. IBM, T.J. Watson Research Center, New York, USA

    Mukul Tewari

  4. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA

    Mitchell W. Moncrieff

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  1. Haochen Tan
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Correspondence to Haochen Tan.

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This paper is a contribution to the special issue on Advances in Convection-Permitting Climate Modeling, consisting of papers that focus on the evaluation, climate change assessment, and feedback processes in kilometer-scale simulations and observations. The special issue is coordinated by Christopher L. Castro, Justin R. Minder, and Andreas F. Prein.

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Tan, H., Ray, P., Barrett, B.S. et al. Role of topography on the MJO in the maritime continent: a numerical case study. Clim Dyn 55, 295–314 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4275-3

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