Differences in Annual Cycle and 30–60-Day Oscillations between the Summers of Strong and Weak Convection over the Tropical Western North Pacific

Abstract

In this study, based on the cases of strong and weak June?August (JJA) mean convection over the tropical western North Pacific, composite analyses are performed by using the satellite-observed outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) data for the 23-yr period from 1979 to 2001, and the contrast features of the composite seasonal evolution of the convection between the strong and weak cases are examined. Anomalous annual cycle and 30?60-day oscillations, that is, two components of the seasonal evolution, and their relative contributions to the anomalous seasonal evolution is analyzed. The authors find that in the composite sense, convection exhibits a larger (smaller) seasonal change during the strong (weak) JJA mean convection summers. The strong (weak) JJA mean convection corresponds to enhanced (suppressed) convection of the annual cycle from the beginning of the year to September, and such a difference in the annual cycle between strong and weak cases is most significant from May to August. On the other hand, the composite 30?60-day oscillations for the strong cases have greater amplitudes than the weak cases, and the phases of the 30?60-day oscillations tend to be more consistent for the strong cases than for the weak cases. Both annual cycle and 30?60-day oscillations contribute to the interannual variation of the seasonal evolution.