Modal Decomposition of the Global Response to Tropical Heating Perturbations Resembling MJO

Abstract

Abstract The paper presents four ensembles of numerical experiments that compare the response to monopole and dipole heating perturbations resembling different phases of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). The results quantify the Rossby and inertio-gravity (IG) wave response using the normal-mode function decomposition. The day 3 response is characterized by about 60% variance in the IG modes, with about 85% of it belonging to the Kelvin waves. On day 14, only 10% of the response variance is due to the Kelvin waves. Although the n = 1 Rossby mode is the main contributor to the Rossby variance at all time scales, the n > 1 Rossby modes contribute over 50% of the balanced response to the MJO heating. In the short range, dipole perturbations produce a response with the maximal variance in zonal wavenumbers k = 2–3 whereas in the medium range the response maximizes at k = 1 in all experiments. Furthermore, the medium-range response to the heating perturbation mimicking MJO phase 6 is found also over Europe.