The moisture budget associated with the eastward-propagating Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) was diagnosed using 1979-2001 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) data. A marked zonal asymmetry of the moisture relative to the MJO convection appears in the planetary boundary layer (PBL, below 700 hPa), creating a potentially more unstable stratification to the east of the MJO convection and favoring the eastward propagation of MJO. The PBL-integrated moisture budget diagnosis indicates that the vertical advection of moisture dominates the low-level moistening ahead of the convection. A further diagnosis indicates that the leading term in the vertical moisture advection is the advection of the background moisture by the MJO ascending flow associated with PBL convergence. The cause of the zonally asymmetric PBL convergence is further examined. It is found that heating-induced free-atmospheric wave dynamics account for 75%-90% of the total PBL convergence, while the warm SST anomaly induced by air-sea interaction contributes 10%-25% of the total PBL convergence.The horizontal moisture advection also plays a role in contributing to the PBL moistening ahead of the MJO convection. The leading term in the moisture advection is the advection across the background moisture gradient by the MJO flow. In the western Indian Ocean, Maritime Continent, and western Pacific, the meridional moisture advection by the MJO northerly flow dominates, while in the eastern Indian Ocean the zonal moisture advection is greater. The contribution of the moisture advection by synoptic eddies is in general small; it has a negative effect over the tropical Indian Ocean and western Pacific and becomes positive in the Maritime Continent region.

Owing to the limited length of observed tropical cyclone data and the effects of multidecadal internal variability, it has been a challenge to detect trends in tropical cyclone activity on a global scale. However, there is a distinct spatial pattern of the trends in tropical cyclone frequency of occurrence on a global scale since 1980, with substantial decreases in the southern Indian Ocean and western North Pacific and increases in the North Atlantic and central Pacific. Here, using a suite of high-resolution dynamical model experiments, we show that the observed spatial pattern of trends is very unlikely to be explained entirely by underlying multidecadal internal variability; rather, external forcing such as greenhouse gases, aerosols, and volcanic eruptions likely played an important role. This study demonstrates that a climatic change in terms of the global spatial distribution of tropical cyclones has already emerged in observations and may in part be attributable to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

[1] Monsoons, the most energetic tropical climate system, exert a great social and economic impact upon billions of people around the world. The global monsoon precipitation had an increasing trend over the past three decades. Whether or not this increasing trend will continue in the 21st century is investigated, based on simulations of three high-resolution atmospheric general circulation models that were forced by different future sea surface temperature (SST) warming patterns. The results show that the global monsoon area, precipitation and intensity all increase consistently among the model projections. This indicates that the strengthened global monsoon is a robust signal across the models and SST patterns explored here. The increase of the global monsoon precipitation is attributed to the increases of moisture convergence and surface evaporation. The former is caused by the increase of atmospheric water vapor and the latter is due to the increase of SST. The effect of the moisture and evaporation increase is offset to a certain extent by the weakening of the monsoon circulation. Citation:

In 1995 an abrupt shift in the late-season (October-December) typhoon activity over the western North Pacific (WNP) is detected by a Bayesian changepoint analysis. Interestingly, a similar change also occurs in the late-season sea surface temperature series over the western Pacific, eastern North Pacific, and portions of the Indian Ocean. All of the counts, lifespans, and accumulated cyclone energy of the late-season typhoons during the 1995-2011 epoch decreased significantly, compared with typhoons that occurred during the 1979-94 epoch. The negative vorticity anomaly is found to be the leading contributor to the genesis potential index (GPI) decrease over the southeastern sector of the WNP during 1995-2011. To elucidate the origin of the epochal change in the dynamic environmental conditions, a suite of sensitivity experiments is conducted based on the latest version of the Japan Meteorological Research Institute atmospheric general circulation model (MRI AGCM). The ensemble simulations suggest that the recent change to a La Niña-like state induces an unfavorable dynamic condition for typhoon genesis over the southeastern WNP. Warming in the Indian Ocean, however, contributes insignificantly to the circulation anomaly related to typhoon genesis over the southeastern WNP. The frequency of typhoon occurrence reveals a basinwide decrease over the WNP in the recent epoch, except for a small increase near Taiwan. An empirical statistical analysis shows that the basinwide decrease in the frequency of the typhoon occurrence is primarily attributed to a decrease in typhoon genesis, while the change in track is of less importance.

[1] The variability of global monsoon area (GMA), global monsoon precipitation (GMP), and global monsoon intensity (GMI) in the present climate and the future warmer climate under Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 (RCP4.5) scenario was examined based on 19 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) simulations. In the present-day simulations, the ensemble mean precipitation reproduces the observed GMA, GMP, and GMI, although the spread of individual models is large. In the RCP4.5 simulations, most (17 of 19) of the CMIP5 models project enhanced global monsoon activity, with the increases of GMA, GMP, and GMI by 1.9%, 3.2%, and 1.3%, respectively, per 1 K of surface warming. The diagnosis of a column-integrated moisture budget indicates that the increase in GMP is primarily attributed to the increases of moisture convergence and surface evaporation, whereas horizontal moisture advection has little effect. A further separation of dynamic and thermodynamic factors shows that increase of the moisture convergence comes mainly from the increase of water vapor, but is partly offset by the convergence effect. The increase of the surface evaporation is caused by the increase of sea-air specific humidity difference, while the change in surface wind speed plays a minor role. The GMP experiences a great year-to-year variation, and it is significantly negatively correlated with the Niño3.4 index averaged over a typical monsoon year (defined from May to the following April) in the pre-industrial control and present-day simulations, similar to observations. Under the RCP4.5 warming, such rainfall variability is intensified, and the relationship between monsoon and El Niño strengthens. A large proportion of intensification in the year-to-year monsoon rainfall variability arises from the land monsoon region.Citation: Hsu, P.-c., T. Li, H. Murakami, and A. Kitoh (2013), Future change of the global monsoon revealed from 19 CMIP5 models,

How boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) modulates the probability and spatial distributions of extreme rainfall occurrence over populous southern China was examined, using the newly proposed BSISO indices and two high‐resolution rain‐gauge‐based rainfall datasets in China. The probability density function of May–August rainfall in southern China is skewed towards large values in phases 2–4 of the first component and in phases 5–7 of the second component of BSISO life cycle, during which the probability of extreme rainfall events at the 75th (90th) percentile increases by 30–50% (over 60%) relative to the non‐BSISO period. The devastating floods with prolonged extreme rainfall in southern China over the three past decades occurred coincidently with these BSISO phases. The first component of BSISO, associated with 30–60‐day eastward/northeastward‐propagating ISO, is more favourable for the rainfall extreme over in‐land China. In contrast, the second component of BSISO, related to the 10–30‐day northwestward propagating ISO, tends to link with the rainfall extreme along the southeast coast of South China. Moisture budget indicates that the favourable environment for rainfall extreme is associated with southwesterly moisture convergence over southern China, while the moisture advection contributes insignificantly. This study suggests a potential for monitoring and probabilistic prediction of extreme rainfall events in southern China based on the real‐time BSISO indices.

The responses of atmospheric variability to Tibetan Plateau (TP) snow cover (TPSC) at seasonal, interannual and decadal time scales have been extensively investigated. However, the atmospheric response to faster subseasonal variability of TPSC has been largely ignored. Here, we show that the subseasonal variability of TPSC, as revealed by daily data, is closely related to the subsequent East Asian atmospheric circulation at medium-range time scales (approximately 3–8 days later) during wintertime. TPSC acts as an elevated cooling source in the middle troposphere during wintertime and rapidly modulates the land surface thermal conditions over the TP. When TPSC is high, the upper-level geopotential height is lower, and the East Asia upper-level westerly jet stream is stronger. This finding improves our understanding of the influence of TPSC at multiple time scales. Furthermore, our work highlights the need to understand how atmospheric variability is rapidly modulated by fast snow cover changes.

The role of scale interactions in the maintenance of eddy kinetic energy (EKE) during the extreme phases of the intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) is examined through the construction of a new eddy energetics diagnostic tool that separates the effects of ISO and a low-frequency background state (LFBS; with periods longer than 90 days). The LFBS always contributes positively toward the EKE in the boreal summer, regardless of the ISO phases. The synoptic eddies extract energy from the ISO during the ISO active phase. This positive barotropic energy conversion occurs when the synoptic eddies interact with low-level cyclonic and convergent-confluent ISO flows. This contrasts with the ISO suppressed phase during which the synoptic eddies lose kinetic energy to the ISO flow. The anticyclonic and divergent-diffluent ISO flows during the suppressed phase are responsible for the negative barotropic energy conversion.A positive (negative) EKE tendency occurs during the ISO suppressed-to-active (active-to-suppressed) transitional phase. The cause of this asymmetric EKE tendency is attributed to the spatial phase relation among the ISO vorticity, eddy structure, and EKE. The southwest-northeast-tilted synoptic disturbances interacting with cyclonic (anticyclonic) vorticity of ISO lead to a positive (negative) EKE tendency in the northwest region of the maximum EKE center.The genesis number and location and intensification rate of tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific are closely related to the barotropic energy conversion. The enhanced barotropic energy conversion favors the generation and development of synoptic seed disturbances, some of which eventually grow into tropical cyclones.