03/01/2010
DOE Climate Facility Data Used to Study the Madden-Julian Oscillation
Summary
The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs in an area in the Indian Ocean with increased thunderstorm clouds and rainfall. Although it influences the time of onset, duration, and strength of the Indian and Australian monsoons and other regions of the Earth, including the continental U.S., it is poorly simulated in many global climate models. The MJO has now been studied using data collected at the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility in the Tropical Western Pacific. Strong MJO signals such as precipitation are present in the data and long-term measurements indicate the influence of the MJO on cloud and radiation statistics compared to non-MJO periods. These new results will be useful in detailed long-term evaluation of climate model predictions, identification of caveats, and improving MJO representation in climate models.
References
Wang Y, CN Long, JH Mather, and XD Liu. 2010. “Convective signals from surface measurements at ARM Tropical Western Pacific site: Manus.” Climate Dynamics, doi:10.1007/s00382-009-0736-z.