Global Impacts of the Madden-Julian Oscillation

Numerous studies have examined the regional impacts of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) on land surface air temperature and precipitation, but a global unified picture of the MJO impacts is still lacking. This study provides a global unified picture of the MJO impacts on land surface air temperature and precipitation for both the Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter and summer, using multiple latest high-quality observational datasets. The MJO has significant impacts on land surface air temperature and precipitation over all seven continents, even in regions far away from the tropical heating associated with the MJO, such as Europe, Alaska, Greenland and Antarctica. The MJO impacts affect broader regions in NH winter than NH summer, especially over Europe, Asia, North America and north Africa. Therefore the MJO provides untapped predictability for global long-range weather forecast over all the continents.