Moistening Processes for Madden–Julian Oscillations during DYNAMO/CINDY

AbstractLower-tropospheric (1000–700 hPa) moistening processes of the two Madden–Julian oscillations (MJOs) over the Indian Ocean during Dynamics of the MJO (DYNAMO)/Cooperative Indian Ocean Experiment on Intraseasonal Variability in Year 2011 (CINDY) are investigated by using soundings, operational assimilation, and satellite data. A scale-separated moisture budget is calculated at the sounding site by using time-decomposed wind and moisture fields. Each budget term is projected onto the intraseasonal moisture anomaly and its time tendency change. The projections and the corresponding temporal correlations are analyzed together with the temporal evolution of the budget terms to identify the dominant moistening process responsible for the MJO evolution. Results indicate that broad-scale advection by low-frequency and MJO flow and moisture fields are dominant moisture sources, while the residual of the moisture budget (−Q2) is a dominant sink contributing to the tendency term (propagation) and intraseasonal moisture anomaly (growth and decay). Dividing their life cycles into four phases (suppressed, cloud developing, convective, and decaying phases), the two MJOs exhibit different budget balances in the premoistening stage from the suppressed phase to the cloud-developing phase when low-frequency vertical motion is downward in MJO1 but upward in MJO2. The corresponding drying and moistening are balanced by negative Q2 (reevaporation in nonraining cloud) in MJO1 and positive Q2 in MJO2. The result implies that low-frequency flow (>60 days) can affect the initiation of MJOs. The premoistening in the lower troposphere by boundary layer moisture convergence leading the deep convection is observed but only in the cloud-developing phase to convective phase of the MJOs. Nonlinear moisture advection by synoptic disturbances always acts as a diffusive term. It is the dominant moisture source in the suppress phase of the two MJOs.