High sensitivity of tropical precipitation to local sea surface temperature.

Precipitation and atmospheric circulation are the coupled processes through which tropical ocean surface temperatures drive global weather and climate. Local sea surface warming tends to increase precipitation, but this local control is difficult to disentangle from remote effects of conditions elsewhere. As an example of such a remote effect, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events in the equatorial Pacific Ocean alter precipitation across the tropics.

Changes in the MJO under greenhouse gas-induced warming in CMIP5 models.

This study investigates changes to the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) in response to greenhouse-gas induced warming during the 21 century. Changes in the MJO's amplitude, phase speed, and zonal scale are examined in five Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models that demonstrate superior MJO characteristics. Under warming, the CMIP5 models exhibit a robust increase in the spectral power of planetary-scale, intraseasonal, eastward-propagating (MJO) precipitation anomalies (~10.