Intraseasonal Variations of Tropical Cold-Point Tropopause Temperatures

Intraseasonal variability of the tropical cold-point tropopause (CPT) and its relationship with tropical convection are investigated. Negative CPT temperature anomalies lead negative outgoing longwave radiation anomalies associated with enhanced convection by about 2-10 days throughout almost the entire lifetime of the Madden-Julian oscillation. It is proposed that the negative CPT temperature anomalies, together with positive tropospheric mean temperature anomalies found by other authors, are likely indications of Kelvin waves excited by convection centered to the west of the temperature anomalies.