Aspects of Low Frequency Oscillation During the Northern Winter as Inferred From Nonlinear Energy Interactions

摘要

— The work deals with the computation and analysis of spectral energetics in the frequency domain at 850 hPa and 200 hPa over the tropics (20°S–20°N) and extratropics (20°N–60°N). The data for the winter months, i.e., November, December and January of 1995, 1996 and 1997 are selected for this purpose. The results suggest that much of the low frequency variability of the Northern Hemisphere wintertime general circulation is associated with disturbances which derive their energy from the time-mean flow through barotropic instability. Low frequency fluctuations tend to be larger in horizontal scale and their kinetic energy is largely confined to the upper troposphere. At 850 hPa, strong energy interaction south of 5°N is noticed due to a southward shift of major inflow channel, originating from the Bay of Bengal and entering the ITCZ from the western Arabian Sea. The energy balances in the tropics and the extratropics during winter have different characteristics from those during summer. In contrast to the summer circulation, instead of a downscale decascade as in the case of the extratropics, kinetic energy is transferred in an opposite sense, namely from transients of shorter to those of longer time scales in the tropics during winter. The strong nonlinear energy interactions associated with low frequency waves over the Indian Ocean (5°N–5°S) during winter is the manifestation of the deep convection due to warm water coupled with the crossequatorial low level flow along the ITCZ over this region. Forcing from this region readily excites a large response in terms of nonlinear energy interaction over the extratropical northeast Pacific.