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Rainfall in tropical Australia is a critical resource for the agricultural sector. However, its high variability implores improvements in our understanding of its variability. Australian tropical rainfall is influenced by both the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) on intraseasonal time scales and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on interannual time scales. This study examines the joint relationship between the MJO, ENSO, and tropical Australian rainfall variability. We analyze daily precipitation data from stations across tropical Australia during the wet season (November to April). The wet season rainfall response to the MJO is found to be greater during El Niño than La Niña. We demonstrate that this relationship is not due to the statistical relationship between the MJO and ENSO indices but instead due to differences in how the MJO modulates the large-scale circulation during El Niño versus during La Niña.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	enso, mjo, predictability, intraseasonal rainfall, tropics, Australia, Madden-Julian oscillation, El Nino-Southern Oscillation, El Nino, wet season
Research Division:	Earth Sciences
Research Group:	Oceanography
Research Field:	Physical oceanography
Objective Division:	Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards
Objective Group:	Understanding climate change
Objective Field:	Climate variability (excl. social impacts)
UTAS Author:	Oliver, ECJ (Dr Eric Oliver)
UTAS Author:	Holbrook, NJ (Professor Neil Holbrook)
ID Code:	122570
Year Published:	2017
Web of Science® Times Cited:	4
Deposited By:	Oceans and Cryosphere
Deposited On:	2017-11-18
Last Modified:	2018-05-25
Downloads:	27 View Download Statistics