All Climate Events

Wednesday, April 10, 2019. 12:00PM. Key model processes for realistic simulations of the Madden-Julian oscillation. Xianan Jiang, AOS. Sponsored by NOAA GFDL. More information here.

Despite tremendous influences on global weather extremes and a critical role in the seasonal to subseasonal (S2S) climate prediction of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO), representation of the MJO remains a grand challenge for present-day climate models. In this talk, Jiang will start with an introduction of our recent analyses based on observations and multi-model simulations using the moisture mode framework, which suggest that realistic simulations of large-scale seasonal mean lower-tropospheric moisture pattern is crucial for faithful representation of MJO eastward propagation in climate models. Additional evidences on the importance of low-level mean moisture for MJO propagation will be further presented by examining the observed seasonal and interannual variations in MJO propagation characteristics, as well as based on idealized GCM simulations. These results provide important guidance for improvement of MJO representation in climate models.