UC Berkeley

Previous research has revealed that monsoon lows and depressions are modulated on intraseasonal time scales in a few regions, including India, Australia, and the East Pacific. This study examines whether such modulation occurs on a global scale and, in particular, how the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is associated with changes in synoptic-scale vortices across all monsoon regions. The spatial climatology of monsoon disturbances is largely insensitive to MJO amplitude. However, monsoon disturbance frequency (MDF) varies substantially with MJO phase, with regional perturbations of 25 to 90% of the seasonal mean value across the tropics. In off-equatorial locations, MDF maxima occur in locations where the MJO enhances low level cyclonic vorticity, typically near the western edge of midlevel moisture perturbations. In contrast, equatorial MDF perturbations are in phase with MJO moisture and rainfall anomalies, with maxima in regions with strong low level zonal wind convergence.