Date of Award

1-1-2019

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences

Content Description

1 online resource (ix, 157 pages) : color illustrations, color maps.

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Paul E. Roundy

Committee Members

Christopher D. Thorncroft, Andrea Lang, Katherine Straub

Keywords

Intraseasonal Variability, Madden-Julian Oscillation, Tropical-Extratropical Interactions, Madden-Julian oscillation, Convection (Meteorology), Cyclones, Ocean-atmosphere interaction

Subject Categories

Atmospheric Sciences

Abstract

Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) deep convection often initially forms over the western Indian Ocean and is frequently preceded by upper tropospheric circulation precursors. These precursors include subtropical cyclonic Rossby gyres near eastern Africa and Southwest Asia, coherent extratropically circumnavigating Rossby wave trains extending back across the Atlantic, and tropically circumnavigating easterlies. Easterly acceleration associated with the circulation precursors may help to reduce large-scale subsidence over the tropical Indian Ocean prior to convective onset; when intraseasonal easterly acceleration reaches the western extent of a region of intraseasonal upper level westerlies, it produces upper-tropospheric divergence, providing a forcing for upward motion.

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