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Boreal summer quasi-monthly oscillation in the global tropics

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Abstract

The boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) in the global tropics is documented here using a 7-year suite (1998–2004) of satellite measurements. A composite scenario was made of 28 selected events with reference to the oscillation in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean (EIO), where the oscillation is most regular and its intensity is indicative of the strength of the subsequent northward propagation. The average oscillation period is about 32 days, and this quasi-monthly oscillation (QMO) is primarily confined to the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. Topics that were investigated are the partition of convective versus stratiform clouds, the vertical structure of precipitation rates, and the evolution of cloud types during the initial organization and the development of intraseasonal convective anomalies in the central Indian Ocean. During the initiation of the convective anomalies, the stratiform and convective rains have comparable rates; the prevailing cloud type experiences a trimodal evolution from shallow to deep convection, and finally to anvil and extended stratiform clouds. A major northwest/southeast-slanted rainband forms as the equatorial rainfall anomalies reach Sumatra, and the rainband subsequently propagates northeastward into the west Pacific Ocean. The enhanced precipitation in the west Pacific then rapidly traverses the Pacific along the Intertropical Convergence Zone, meanwhile migrating northward to the Philippine Sea. A seesaw teleconnection in rainfall anomalies is found between the southern Bay of Bengal (5–15°N, 80–100°E) and the eastern Pacific (5–15°N, 85–105°W). Local sea-surface temperature (SST)-rainfall anomalies display a negative simultaneous correlation in the off-equatorial regions but a zero correlation (quadrature phase relationship) near the equator. We propose that atmosphere–ocean interaction and the vertical monsoon easterly shear are important contributors to the northeastward propagation component of the intraseasonal rainband. The observed evidence presented here provides critical information for validating the numerical models, and it supports the self-induction mechanism theory for maintenance of the boreal summer ISO.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. R. Madden for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Dr. Bin Wang acknowledges the support from NSF climate dynamics program (ATM03-29531) and in part by IPRC, which is in part sponsored by FRCGC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology and the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC), University of Hawaii, 1680 East West Road, POST Bldg. 409E, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Bin Wang & Kazuyoshi Kikuchi

  2. School of Earth & Atmospheric Science & Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Tech University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Peter Webster

  3. Hydrospheric and Atmospheric Research Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Tetsuzo Yasunari

  4. Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China

    Yanjun Qi

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  1. Bin Wang
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  2. Peter Webster
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  3. Kazuyoshi Kikuchi
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  4. Tetsuzo Yasunari
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  5. Yanjun Qi
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Correspondence to Bin Wang.

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Wang, B., Webster, P., Kikuchi, K. et al. Boreal summer quasi-monthly oscillation in the global tropics. Clim Dyn 27, 661–675 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-006-0163-3

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