The Zonal Seasonal Cycle of Tropical Precipitation: Introducing the Indo-Pacific Monsoonal Mode
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clim-JCLI-D-23-0125.1.pdf
Description
Published version
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31.55 MB
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Adobe PDF
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Author(s)
Tuckman, PJ
Smyth, Jane
Lutsko, Nicholas J
Marshall, John
Date Issued
July 15, 2024
Journal
Journal of Climate
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Citation
Tuckman, P. J., J. Smyth, N. J. Lutsko, and J. Marshall, 2024: The Zonal Seasonal Cycle of Tropical Precipitation: Introducing the Indo-Pacific Monsoonal Mode. J. Climate, 37, 3807–3824.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is associated with a zonal band of strong precipitation that migrates meridionally over the seasonal cycle. Tropical precipitation also migrates zonally, such as from the South Asian monsoon in Northern Hemisphere summer (JJA) to the precipitation maximum of the west Pacific in Northern Hemisphere winter (DJF). To explore this zonal movement in the Indo-Pacific sector, we analyze the seasonal cycle of tropical precipitation using a 2D energetic framework and study idealized atmosphere–ocean simulations with and without ocean dynamics. In the observed seasonal cycle, an atmospheric energy and precipitation anomaly forms over South Asia in northern spring and summer due to heating over land. It is then advected eastward into the west Pacific in northern autumn and remains there due to interactions with the Pacific cold tongue and equatorial easterlies. We interpret this phenomenon as a “monsoonal mode,” a zonally propagating moist energy anomaly of continental and seasonal scale. To understand the behavior of the monsoonal mode, we develop and explore an analytical model in which the monsoonal mode is advected by low-level winds, is sustained by interaction with the ocean, and decays due to the free tropospheric mixing of energy.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0125.1
