MJO - WEATHER ENHANCER AND SUPPRESSOR

MJO also known as Madden- Julian Oscillation is one of the most common weather-terms hovering among weather bloggers in their posts in social media. One might need to know what is MJO all about because most of the forecasts during monsoon time are centred around with this term. 

In this article, we will explore MJO and its different phases and how it influences North- East monsoon. So, let's dive in to the topic...

 MJO also known as Madden- Julian Oscillation can be defined as an eastward moving pulse of convection , winds and pressure near the equator (like a train whose destination is towards east) which typically occurs every 30-60 days and comes back to its initial starting point (after reaching the destination, train travels back thus travelling all over the globe). It is a traversing weather phenemenon which is mostly notable in Indian and Pacific oceans. 

The Julian Oscillation is the energy supplier for tropical cyclones near the equator latitude which includes our North Indian Ocean basin too. This energy supplier feeds energy at certain conditions which will be assessed in below lines. 

It  basically dissects the planet's weather into two halves- according to its phases. So generally MJO consists of 2 phases which can be classifed as suppressed and enhanced phases. The location of these convective phases are often grouped into geographically based stages that climate scientists number 1-8.

 Phase 1, 2, 3, 4 are conducive for convectional and tropical cyclone development in Bay of Bengal as well as in Arabian Sea. Weather bloggers and pluviophiles in Tamilnadu during North- East monsoon desire for MJO presence in phase 1-4 which enhances the rainfall prospects over the region and has been the depression/cyclone- manufacturer for cyclone watchers in the basin assuming all other factors were too favourable. Thus, the impact of MJO during North-East monsoon is quite significant and correlated with each other. 2021 was one such year when MJO was looping around the Maritime Continent for a brief period of the monsoon resulting a massive sucess. 

Phase 5,6,7,8 the suppressive convectiion phase of MJO are the nightmare for pluviophiles and weather trackers in the region especially during the peak time of the monsoon. Unlike the brother monsoon "South- West monsoon" which is impacted by various factors as well to name a few: upper jet stream, TEJ, Somalian Jet, Tibetian High, MISO etc. Our North- East monsoon is dependent mostly over MJO enhancement period and if it flops, it is generally difficult to reach the average monsoon quota. 

Now that you have known MJO & its phases and how it influences North- East monsoon was discussed above. Hence, next time you come across MJO term in any weather post  know that what it means actually. See you next week with another weather term to decode. However, this is only the basic outline of MJO which is required to understand the concept and moving in deep with respect to their amplitudes could be quite complicated at first itself thus leaving that topic right now. See you next week with another weather term to decode. 

Pics credit- Google (respective owners)

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