Reinitiation of the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation in the Tropical Indian Ocean

Abstract

The characteristic features of the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) during its reinitiation period are studied using NCEP-NCAR reanalysis. Based on these observations and with the aid of an anomalous atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM), a possible mechanism responsible for the BSISO reinitiation is elucidated. The western equatorial Indian Ocean along the eastern African coast tends to be a key region for the phase transition of the BSISO from an enhanced to suppressed convective phase, or vise versa. The major precursory feature associated with reinitiation of suppressed convection is found in the divergence and reduced specific humidity in the boundary layer. Numerical experiments indicate that the low-level divergence is caused by the cold horizontal temperature advection and associated adiabatic warming (descending motion) in situ. The summer mean state is found to be important for the cold horizontal temperature advection through the modulation of a Gill-type response to an intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) heating in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. The results in this study suggest a self-sustained paradigm in the Indian Ocean for the BSISO; that is, the BSISO could be a basinwide phenomenon instead of a global circumstance system as hypothesized for the boreal winter ISO (i.e., the Madden-Julian oscillation). © 2005 American Meteorological Society.