Objective Diagnostics and the Madden–Julian Oscillation. Part I: Methodology

Abstract Diagnostics obtained as an extension of empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis are shown to address many disadvantages of using EOF-based indices to assess the state of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). The real-time multivariate MJO (RMM) index and the filtered MJO OLR (FMO) index are used to demonstrate these diagnostics. General characteristics of the indices, such as the geographical regions that most heavily influence each index, are assessed using the diagnostics. The diagnostics also identify how a given field, at various geographical locations, influences the index value at a given time. Termination (as defined by the RMM index) of the October 2011 MJO event that occurred during the Cooperative Indian Ocean Experiment on Intraseasonal Variability in the Year 2011 (CINDY) Dynamics of the MJO (DYNAMO) field campaign is shown to have resulted from changes in zonal wind anomalies at 200 hPa over the eastern Pacific Ocean, despite the onset of enhanced convection in the Indian Ocean and the persistence of favorable lower- and upper-level zonal wind anomalies near this region. The diagnostics objectively identify, for each specific geographical location, the index phase where the largest MJO-related anomalies in a given field are likely to be observed. This allows for the geographical variability of anomalous conditions associated with the MJO to be easily assessed throughout its life cycle. In Part II of this study, unique physical insight into the moist static energy and moisture budgets of the MJO is obtained from the application of diagnostics introduced here.