Search for: All records

Abstract A robust linear regression algorithm is applied to estimate 95% confidence intervals on the background wind associated with Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) upper-tropospheric atmospheric circulation signals characterized by different phase speeds. Data reconstructed from the ERA5 to represent advection by the upper-tropospheric background flow and MJO-associated zonal wind anomalies, together with satellite outgoing longwave radiation anomalies, all in the equatorial plane, are regressed against advection data filtered for zonal wavenumber 2 and phase speeds of 3, 4, 5, and 7 m s −1 . The regressed advection by the background flow is then divided by the negative of the zonal gradient of regressed zonal wind across the central Indian Ocean base longitude at 80°E to estimate the associated background wind that leads to the given advection. The median estimates of background wind associated with these phase speeds are 13.4, 11.2, 10.5, and 10.3 m s −1 easterly. The differences between estimated values at neighboring speeds suggests that advection acts most strongly in slow MJO events, indicating that the slowest events happen to be slow because they experience stronger easterly advection by the upper-tropospheric background wind. Significance Statement The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) is the dominant subseasonal rainfall signal of the tropical atmosphere. This project shows that the background wind of the tropical atmosphere most especially slows down the slowest MJO events. Understanding what controls its speed might help scientists better predict events. 

Abstract This study derives a complete set of equatorially confined wave solutions from an anelastic equation set with the complete Coriolis terms, which include both the vertical and meridional planetary vorticity. The propagation mechanism can change with the effective static stability. When the effective static stability reduces to neutral, buoyancy ceases, but the role of buoyancy as an eastward-propagation mechanism is replaced by the compressional beta effect (i.e., vertical density-weighted advection of the meridional planetary vorticity). For example, the Kelvin mode becomes a compressional Rossby mode. Compressional Rossby waves are meridional vorticity disturbances that propagate eastward owing to the compressional beta effect. The compressional Rossby wave solutions can serve as a benchmark to validate the implementation of the nontraditional Coriolis terms (NCTs) in numerical models; with an effectively neutral condition and initial large-scale disturbances given a half vertical wavelength spanning the troposphere on Earth, compressional Rossby waves are expected to propagate eastward at a phase speed of 0.24 m s −1 . The phase speed increases with the planetary rotation rate and the vertical wavelength and also changes with the density scale height. Besides, the compressional beta effect and the meridional vorticity tendency are reconstructed using reanalysis data and regressed upon tropical precipitation filtered for the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). The results suggest that the compressional beta effect contributes 10.8% of the meridional vorticity tendency associated with the MJO in terms of the ratio of the minimum values. 

Wave‐number‐frequency power spectrum analysis has been used as a primary tool to detect the ranges of wave numbers and frequencies about which observed convectively coupled equatorial waves are active. Previous works have suggested that activity in these waves clusters between roughly 12 and 60 m equivalent depths because spectral peaks normalized by dividing by a smoothed spectral background follow those ranges. Through a combination of wave‐number‐frequency power spectrum analysis, filtering and linear regression, this work shows that the traditional approach generates confusion because it conflates different, sometimes conflicting, signals from around the world that contribute to the same parts of the spectrum. Results also suggest that the traditional method leads us to ignore substantial power associated with variability structurally consistent with observed Kelvin waves but that occurs at lower frequencies. Wave signals at these frequencies are stronger than but similar to Kelvin wave signals coincident with the Kelvin peak in the normalized spectrum. Results suggest that the wave signal itself has red properties, possibly because more strongly convectively coupled waves propagate more slowly. The slower, more intense wave signals outside of the standard band would impact tangible weather signals and should not be ignored in operations. Instead, results support the view that disturbances labelled as Kelvin waves form a continuum with the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) and suggest that the whole region of the spectrum from the broadly recognized Kelvin band to the MJO should be considered together.

 

Qualities of the meridional movements of geopotential height anomalies in the upper troposphere of the subtropics are analysed via wavelet analysis using a meridional–temporal partial Morlet wavelet. Results show that power, which represents increased presence or amplitude of waves with direct meridional movement, is increased in regions where the corresponding equatorial winds in the upper troposphere are westerly or weakly easterly. Furthermore, equatorward power is enhanced near subtropical jet exit regions whereas poleward power is enhanced in jet entrance regions. Regressions of upper‐tropospheric winds, geopotential height, and outgoing long‐wave radiation (OLR) against the wavelet transforms demonstrate that the wavelets are identifying signals with tropical–extratropical interactions that are connected to organized convection in the tropics. The relationship of power with background‐state flow characteristics, including the horizontal winds and shear, are evaluated. Instead of the zonal wind and meridional shear of the zonal wind (du/dy), both the meridional wind and the zonal shear of the meridional wind (dv/dx) appear to have a clearer relationship with the power. Power is favoured for waves whose movement is aligned in the same direction as the meridional wind, and reduced in the opposite direction. Additionally, power increases with increasing zonal shear of the meridional wind in the Northern Hemisphere and with decreasing zonal shear of the meridional wind in the Southern Hemisphere. Power in the equatorward direction is stronger than in the poleward direction and more heavily influenced by background flow characteristics. Furthermore, power for wavelets with smaller meridional and temporal scales tends to have a higher sensitivity to the background horizontal flow as compared to larger meridional and temporal scales.

 

This study corrects the hypsometric equation by restoring the nontraditional terms to relax the hydrostatic approximation. The nontraditional terms include one Coriolis term and two metric terms in the vertical momentum equation. The hypsometric equations with and without the nontraditional correction are used to calculate the geopotential height of pressure levels using more than 300,000 selected tropical rawinsonde profiles. With westerlies between two pressure levels, the thickness of the layer increases, which reduces the upward pressure gradient forces to balance the upward nontraditional Coriolis forces; the opposite is true for easterlies. Hence, zonal winds are negatively correlated with traditional geopotential height biases aloft. At 500 hPa, for example, traditional geopotential height error in the tropical troposphere is on the order of at least 0.5 m, which is considerable with respect to geopotential height variability in tropical large‐scale flow, on the order of 10 to 15 m.

 

Prior to the onset of convection over the western Indian Ocean for many Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) events, equatorward‐propagating upper tropospheric negative geopotential height anomalies are observed along the east coast of Africa. To identify these signals independently from the MJO, we calculate partial meridional‐temporal wavelet transforms averaged between 35 and 45°E and centred in the subtropics. During times when the amplitudes of MJO indices are strong and leading up to convective onset over the western Indian Ocean, increased wavelet power relative to the mean state is observed in the equatorward direction at intraseasonal time‐scales from both hemispheres. Regressions against groups of equatorward intraseasonal wavelet transform time series centred on negative anomalies in the subtropics show extratropical Rossby wave trains extending to the west across the Atlantic similar to signals previously observed leading up to the onset of Indian basin convection in composite MJO events. Compared to globally averaged mean‐state power spectra in the subtropics, increased equatorward propagation of upper tropospheric geopotential height anomalies occurs regionally near eastern Africa on intraseasonal time‐scales, which suggests that local mean‐state conditions, in addition to the MJO, may influence meridional wave propagation. Since these anomalies may in turn influence the onset of MJO convection over the western Indian Ocean and have higher local power, mean‐state conditions near the subtropics of eastern Africa may change the timing of the MJO.