The development and propagation of an active phase of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) was well simulated in a hindcast conducted with the Nonhydrosatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), a global model that allows explicit representation of of

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NICAM Simulates Development and Motion of
Dominant Intraseasonal Tropical Weather
Disturbance
P. Liu, M. Satoh, B. Wang, H. Fudeyasu, T.
Nasuno, T. Li, H. Miura, H. Taniguchi, H.
Masunaga, X. Fu, and H. Annamalai, Mon. Wea.
Rev., in press
Vertical structure of the MJO during phase 2
along the equator specific humidity (grey,
contour interval), rain rate (red)
RMM diagram of the MJO event observed (blue) and
simulated (red).
The development and propagation of an active
phase of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) was
well simulated in a hindcast conducted with the
Nonhydrosatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model
(NICAM), a global model that allows explicit
representation of of cloud-systems. The model was
initialized from December 15, 2006, observational
analysis and integrated for a month. The
amplitude and phase of the MJO in the simulations
was characterized with multivariate MJO real-time
(RMM) index, which uses outgoing longwave
radiation as well as 200 hPa and 850 hPa wind
fields. There is quite good agreement between the
simulated and observed amplitude and phase
progression (left) as well as vertical structure
(right). This unprecedented success may be
attributed to the explicit representation of both
convection and the large-scale circulation.