Key processes for the eastward propagation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation based on multimodel simulations

As a prominent climate variability mode with widespread influences on global weather extremes, the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) remains poorly represented in the latest generation of general circulation models (GCMs), with a particular challenge in simulating its eastward propagating convective signals. In this study, by analyzing multimodel simulations from a recent global MJO model evaluation project, an effort is made to identify key processes for the eastward propagation of the MJO through analyses of moisture entropy (ME) processes under a moisture mode framework for the MJO. The column-integrated horizontal ME advection is found to play a critical role for the eastward propagation of the MJO in both observations and good MJO models, with a primary contribution through advection of the lower tropospheric seasonal mean ME by the MJO anomalous circulations. By contrast, the horizontal ME advection effect for the eastward propagation is greatly underestimated in poor MJO GCMs, due to model deficiencies in simulating both the seasonal mean ME pattern and MJO circulations, leading to a largely stationary MJO mode in these GCMs. These results thus pinpoint an important guidance toward improved representation of the MJO in climate and weather forecast models. While this study mainly focuses on fundamental physics for the MJO propagation over the Indian Ocean, complex influences by the Maritime Continent on the MJO and also ME processes associated with the MJO over the western Pacific warrant further investigations.