Moist Static Energy Budget of MJO-like Disturbances in the Atmosphere of a Zonally Symmetric Aquaplanet

A Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO)-like spectral feature is observed in the time–space spectra of precipitation and column-integrated moist static energy (MSE) for a zonally symmetric aquaplanet simulated with Superparameterized Community Atmospheric Model (SPCAM). This disturbance possesses the basic structural and propagation features of the observed MJO. To explore the processes involved in propagation and maintenance of this disturbance, this study analyzes the MSE budget of the disturbance. The authors observe that the disturbances propagate both eastward and poleward. The column-integrated longwave heating is the only significant source of column-integrated MSE acting to maintain the MJO-like anomaly balanced against the combination of column-integrated horizontal and vertical advection of MSE and latent heat flux. Eastward propagation of the MJO-like disturbance is associated with MSE generated by both column integrated horizontal and vertical advection of MSE, with the column longwave heating generating MSE that retards the propagation. The contribution to the eastward propagation by the column-integrated horizontal advection of MSE is dominated by synoptic eddies. Further decomposition indicates that the advection contribution to the eastward propagation is dominated by meridional advection of MSE by anomalous synoptic eddies caused by the suppression of eddy activity ahead of the MJO convection. This suppression is linked to the barotropic conversion mechanism, with the gradients of the low-frequency wind experienced by the synoptic eddies within the MJO envelope acting to modulate the eddy kinetic energy. The meridional eddy advection’s contribution to poleward propagation is dominated by the mean state’s (meridionally varying) eddy activity acting on the anomalous MSE gradients associated with the MJO.