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Is the Madden-Julian Oscillation a Moisture Mode?
  • Victor C. Mayta,
  • Ángel F. Adames-Corraliza
Victor C. Mayta
University of Wisconsin, Madison

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Ángel F. Adames-Corraliza
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
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Abstract

The governing thermodynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) are examined using sounding and reanalysis data. On the basis of four objective criteria, results suggest that the MJO behaves like a moisture mode –a system whose thermodynamics is governed by moisture– only over the Indian Ocean. Over this basin, the small effective gross moist stability, i.e., a slow moist static energy (MSE) export by convection, and slow convective adjustment timescale allows moisture modes to exist for all zonal wavenumbers except 1. Elsewhere, the faster-propagating wavenumber 1-2 components are more prominent and the effective gross moist stability is higher, preventing weak temperature gradient (WTG) balance to be established and causing temperature and moisture to play similar roles in the MJO’s thermodynamics.
08 Feb 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
09 Feb 2023Published in ESS Open Archive