Propagation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation and scale interaction with the diurnal cycle in a high-resolution GCM

Peatman, Simon, Matthews, Adrian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0492-1168 and Stevens, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7283-4405 (2015) Propagation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation and scale interaction with the diurnal cycle in a high-resolution GCM. Climate Dynamics, 45. pp. 2901-2918. ISSN 0930-7575

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Abstract

The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is the chief source of tropical intra-seasonal variability, but is simulated poorly by most state-of-the-art GCMs. Common errors include a lack of eastward propagation at the correct frequency and zonal extent, and too small a ratio of eastward- to westward-propagating variability. Here it is shown that HiGEM, a high-resolution GCM, simulates a very realistic MJO with approximately the correct spatial and temporal scale. Many MJO studies in GCMs are limited to diagnostics which average over a latitude band around the equator, allowing an analysis of the MJO's structure in time and longitude only. In this study a wider range of diagnostics is applied. It is argued that such an approach is necessary for a comprehensive analysis of a model's MJO. The standard analysis of Wheeler and Hendon (Mon Wea Rev 132(8):1917-1932, 2004; WH04) is applied to produce composites, which show a realistic spatial structure in the MJO envelopes but for the timing of the peak precipitation in the inter-tropical convergence zone, which bifurcates the MJO signal. Further diagnostics are developed to analyse the MJO's episodic nature and the "MJO inertia" (the tendency to remain in the same WH04 phase from one day to the next). HiGEM favours phases 2, 3, 6 and 7; has too much MJO inertia; and dies out too frequently in phase 3. Recent research has shown that a key feature of the MJO is its interaction with the diurnal cycle over the Maritime Continent. This interaction is present in HiGEM but is unrealistically weak.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Available under Open Access
Uncontrolled Keywords: higem,mjo,maritime continent,diurnal cycle ,diagnostics
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Mathematics
Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Volcanoes@UEA (former - to 2018)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Meteorology, Oceanography and Climate Dynamics (former - to 2017)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climate, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Fluid and Solid Mechanics
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 25 Feb 2015 06:17
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 12:32
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/52478
DOI: 10.1007/s00382-015-2513-5

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