Comparison of moist static energy and budget between the GCM-simulated madden-julian oscillation and observations over the Indian Ocean and western Pacific

Xiaoqing Wu*, Liping Deng

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

The moist static energy (MSE) anomalies and MSE budget associated with the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) simulated in the Iowa State University General Circulation Model (ISUGCM) over the Indian and Pacific Oceans are compared with observations. Different phase relationships between MJO 850-hPa zonal wind, precipitation, and surface latent heat flux are simulated over the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, which are greatly influenced by the convection closure, trigger conditions, and convective momentum transport (CMT). The moist static energy builds up from the lower troposphere 15-20 days before the peak of MJOprecipitation, and reaches the maximum in the middle troposphere (500-600 hPa) near the peak ofMJO precipitation. The gradual lower-tropospheric heating and moistening and the upward transport of moist static energy are important aspects of MJO events, which are documented in observational studies but poorly simulated in most GCMs. The trigger conditions for deep convection, obtained from the year-long cloudresolving model (CRM) simulations, contribute to the striking difference between ISUGCM simulations with the original and modified convection schemes and play the major role in the improved MJO simulation in ISUGCM. Additionally, the budget analysis with the ISUGCM simulations shows the increase in MJO MSE is in phase with the horizontal advection of MSE over the western Pacific, while out of phase with the horizontal advection of MSE over the Indian Ocean. However, the NCEP analysis shows that the tendency of MJO MSE is in phase with the horizontal advection of MSE over both oceans.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4981-4993
Number of pages13
JournalJOURNAL OF CLIMATE
Volume26
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atmospheric Science

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