Land-sea surface air temperature contrast on the western coast of Sumatra Island during an active phase of the Madden-Julian Oscillation

Abstract

The land-sea surface temperature contrast on the western coast of Sumatra Island was examined using observation data obtained from the pre-Years of the Maritime Continent (YMC) field campaign from November to December 2015. Surface observations showed that, on most days, strong daytime solar radiation caused a pronounced diurnal cycle in surface air temperatures on the island, even during the local active phase of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). Sudden drops in surface air temperature occurred frequently on the island in the late afternoon and over the sea at nighttime, accompanied by precipitation. Temperatures on the island were higher than those over the sea during the daytime and lower in the night and early morning. Prior to the local active phase of the MJO, dual maxima in the land-sea surface air temperature contrast occurred in the evening and early morning. During the local active phase of the MJO, in spite of cloudy conditions, there were still large land-sea temperature contrasts during the daytime and in the early morning. In addition to the nighttime radiative cooling of the land surface, decreases in air temperature over the land due to precipitation cooling and the lower solar insolation in the MJO active phase caused the larger temperature differences in the morning. These results suggest that the decrease in air temperature caused by precipitation cooling had a substantial effect on the land-sea surface air temperature contrast on the western coast of Sumatra Island, particularly during an active phase of the MJO.