Collaborative Research: Lagrangian Simulations of the Madden Julian Oscillation over Warming Oceans

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项目编号	1561084
	Collaborative Research: Lagrangian Simulations of the Madden Julian Oscillation over Warming Oceans
	Sharon Sessions
主持机构	New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
项目开始年	2016
	2016-05-15
项目结束日期	2019-04-30
资助机构	US-NSF
项目类别	Standard Grant
项目经费	118630(USD)
国家	美国
语种	英语
英文摘要	The Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a large weather system that forms over the Indian Ocean and moves slowly eastward until it dissipates near the middle of the tropical Pacific Ocean. When it passes a given location, it typically causes a rainy period that lasts 15-30 days that is followed by dry weather, as well as an extended period of strong westerly winds. The circulations that accompany the MJO go all the way around the world in the tropical atmosphere, and they affect when monsoon rainfall begins in Asia, Australia, and North America, as well as when and where tropical storms and hurricanes form. Despite its importance to global weather and climate, the MJO has been poorly simulated in climate models for decades, so current predictions of how it will change in the future are unreliable. The scientists involved in this project have developed a new kind of weather model that better predicts the behavior of the MJO. It is referred to as "Lagrangian," because instead of solving equations for atmospheric motions on a grid of points, it tracks air masses as they move around the world. The Lagrangian weather model will be used to study how the MJO will change in the future as the oceans warm, and to better understand how the MJO works, so its representation can be improved in other models as well. Uncertainty about future changes to the MJO represent an important X-factor for climate change. Preliminary results suggest that the MJO will intensify, become more frequent, and affect a broader region of the tropics as the oceans warm. Potential impacts include changes to tropical rainfall patterns, altered distributions of tropical storms and hurricanes, and changes in wind patterns that favor more frequent and persistent El Nino-like ocean warming. This project will also educate two graduate students and several undergraduate students about techniques in modeling atmospheric circulations and about climate dynamics.
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文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/69501
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Sharon Sessions.Collaborative Research: Lagrangian Simulations of the Madden Julian Oscillation over Warming Oceans.2016.