Presenter 2, C. Zhang: The current state of MJO research and the DYNAMO/CINDY 2011 field program
Prof. Yanai's contributions to the study of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) have come from several directions. Roland Madden and Paul Julian were inspired by Dr. Yanai's early work on spectral analysis of large-scale tropical disturbances to conduct the study that led to discovery of the MJO. Dr. Yanai's pioneering work on the tropical heat and moisture budgets helped pave the way for subsequent studies that examined diabatic heating profiles and the regulation of the energy, moisture, and moist static energy budgets during an MJO life cycle in field observations and global analyses. Prof. Yanai and collaborator first investigated convective momentum transport associated with the MJO, which has been hypothesized to be important for reproducing the gross features of the MJO in global models. Prof. Yanai and collaborators also contributed seminal work on the eddy kinetic energy and eddy available potential energy budgets of the MJO during the TOGA-COARE intensive observing period.
In this presentation, the current status of MJO study is briefly reviewed, and future research plans on the MJO, especially an international field campaign in the Indian Ocean (DYNAMO/CINDY2011) and associated modeling activities, are outlined in connection to Prof. Yanai's work in this area.
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