“Years of Maritime Continent (YMC)” is an international campaign which contains five scientific themes. The project we propose will focus primarily on upper ocean processes and their impacts on air-sea interaction, and thus will directly contribute to one of the themes “Ocean and Air-Sea Interaction”. The primary goal of the proposed study is to understand the role of upper ocean processes over the MC in diurnal to intraseasonal atmosphere-ocean-land interaction and the simulation and prediction of the tropical intra-seasonal variability including the MJO. Specific objectives are to: Read More →

Accurate simulation and prediction of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is one of the major challenges for climate modeling and operational weather forecasts. The MJO in the NCEP Coupled Forecast System (CFS) is too weak and propagates too slowly, particularly during its initiation and evolution over the Indian Ocean. With the objective to advance our understanding of the MJO initiation processes and improve MJO prediction, DYNAMO international field campaign provides a substantial amount of oceanic and atmospheric in-situ data. Read More →

The Bay of Bengal (BOB) and the Arabian Sea (AS) are strongly coupled to the atmosphere but in a somewhat different way. In the summer monsoon, the BOB is warm and fresh with shallow and stratified mixed layer maintained by the river discharges. The diurnal variation in insolation modulates the mixed layer stratification, and the resultant air-sea flux and the sea surface temperatures exhibit coherent space-time variations with the monsoon deep convection, the crucial process affecting the onset and the active-break cycle of the summer monsoon. The AS, in contrast, is cold and salty featuring deep mixed layer sustained by the atmospheric Findlater Jet, resulting in unstable boundary currents, coastal upwelling, and a high level of eddy activity. Read More →

This study investigates how the ocean circulation interacts with the atmospheric intra-seasonal (8-90 days) and synoptic (2-8 days) variability on the interannual to multi-decadal time scales based on the satellite and in-situ observations, atmospheric and ocean re-analyses, and regional climate modeling. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of ocean-to-atmosphere feedbacks over the Gulf Stream (GS) / North Atlantic Current (NAC) in the North Atlantic, and the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE) in the North Pacific. Read More →

Climate in the Pacific sector is well known to vary on decadal timescales, but the mechanisms that control these long-term climate variations are still unclear. If the mechanisms can be better understood, then the uncertainties associated with making climate predictions on these timescales can be assessed more accurately. Decadal variability of Pacific climate is of particular interest in the U.S. due to its downstream influence over the western U.S. and its direct influence on climate in Alaska. Read More →

This project investigates the origin of the observed co-variability in the extra-tropical North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere system on multi-decadal timescales, with particular emphasis on the interaction between changes in weather variability in the atmosphere and decadal variability in ocean circulation, using state-of-the-art coupled, atmosphere, and ocean climate model simulations, as well as observational/reanalysis products. This project will improve our understanding of the nature of the multi- decadal variability in North Atlantic atmospheric blocking, accompanying atmospheric circulation patterns, and their association with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). Read More →