Land-Locked Convection as a Barrier to MJO Propagation Across the Maritime Continent

Abstract

Large-scale convection associated with the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) initiates over the Indian Ocean and propagates eastward across the Maritime Continent (MC). Over the MC, MJO events are generally weakened due to complex interactions between the large-scale MJO and the MC landmass. The MC barrier effect is responsible for the dissipation of 40%–50% of observed MJO events and is often exaggerated in weather and climate models. We examine how MJO propagation over the MC is affected by two aspects of the MC—its land-sea contrast and its terrain. To isolate the effects of mountains and land-sea contrast on MJO propagation, we conduct three high-resolution coupled atmosphere-ocean model experiments: (a) control simulation (CTRL) of the 2011 November–December MJO event, (b) flattened terrain without MC mountains (FLAT), and (c) no-land simulation (WATER) in which the MC islands are replaced with 50 m deep ocean. CTRL captures the general properties of the diurnal cycle of precipitation and MJO propagation across the MC. The WATER simulation produces a more intense and smoother-propagating MJO compared with that of CTRL. In contrast, the convergence of sea breezes in the FLAT simulation produces much more organized convection and precipitation far inland than in CTRL, which results in a stronger barrier effect to MJO propagation. The land-sea contrast induced land-locked convection weakens the MJO's convective organization. The land-locked convective systems over land in FLAT are more intense, grow larger, and last longer, which is more detrimental to MJO propagation over the MC, than the mountains that are present in CTRL.