Satellite Perspectives of Sea Surface Temperature Diurnal Warming on Atmospheric Moistening and Radiative Heating during MJO

• Published in: Journal of climate Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 1203 - 1226
• Main Authors: Itterly, Kyle, Taylor, Patrick, Roberts, J. Brent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston American Meteorological Society 01.02.2021
• Subjects: Atmosphere; Cloud cover; Destabilization; Diurnal; Energy budget; Evaporation; General circulation models; Heat; Low clouds; Madden-Julian oscillation; Mixed layer; Moist static energy; Moisture; Moisture budget; Ocean mixed layer; Oceans; Phase transitions; Precipitation; Radiative heating; Regions; Satellite observation; Satellites; Sea surface; Sea surface temperature; Surface stability; Surface temperature; Temperature; Tropospheric humidity; Wetting; Winds; Indian Ocean
• ISSN: 0894-8755; 1520-0442
• DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0350.1

Diurnal air–sea coupling affects climate modes such as the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) via the regional moist static energy budget. Prior to MJO initiation, large-scale subsidence increases (decreases) surface shortwave insolation (winds). These act in concert to significantly warm the uppermost layer of the ocean over the course of a single day and the ocean mixed layer over the course of 1–2 weeks. Here, we provide an integrated analysis of multiple surface, top-of-atmosphere, and atmospheric column observations to assess the covariability related to regions of strong diurnal sea surface temperature (dSST) warming over 44 MJO events between 2000 and 2018 to assess their role in MJO initiation. Combining satellite observations of evaporation and precipitation with reanalysis moisture budget terms, we find 30%–50% enhanced moistening over high-dSST regions during late afternoon using either ERA5 or MERRA-2 despite large model biases. Diurnally developing moisture convergence, only modestly weaker evaporation, and diurnal minimum precipitation act to locally enhance moistening over broad regions of enhanced diurnal warming, which rectifies onto the larger scale. Field campaign ship and sounding data corroborate that strong dSST periods are associated with reduced middle-tropospheric humidity and larger diurnal amplitudes of surface warming, evaporation, instability, and column moistening. Further, we find greater daytime increases in low cloud cover and evidence of enhanced radiative destabilization for the top 50th dSST percentile. Together, these results support that dSST warming acts in concert with large-scale dynamics to enhance moist static energy during the suppressed to active phase transition of the MJO.