Eastern Pacific intraseasonal variability: A predictability perspective

Abstract

The eastern Pacific (EPAC) warm pool is a region of strong intraseasonal variability (ISV) during boreal summer. While the EPAC ISV is known to have large-scale impacts that shape the weather and climate in the region (e.g., tropical cyclones and local monsoon), simulating the EPAC ISV is still a great challenge for present-day global weather and climate models. In the present study, the predictive skill and predictability of the EPAC ISV are explored in eight coupled model hindcasts from the Intraseasonal Variability Hindcast Experiment (ISVHE). Relative to the prediction skill for the boreal winter Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) in the ISVHE (~15-25 days), the skill for the EPAC ISV is considerably lower in most models, with an average skill around 10 days. On the other hand, while the MJO exhibits a predictability of 35-45 days, the predictability estimate for the EPAC ISV is 20-30 days. The prediction skill was found to be higher when the hindcasts were initialized from the convective phase of the EPAC ISV as opposed to the subsidence phase. Higher prediction skill was also found to be associated with active MJO initial conditions over the western Pacific (evident in four out of eight models), signaling the importance of exploring the dynamic link between the MJO and the EPAC ISV. The results illustrate the possibility and need for improving dynamical prediction systems to facilitate more accurate and longer-lead predictions of the EPAC ISV and associated weather and short-term climate variability.