Medium-Range Oscillations in the Summer Tropical Easterlies at 200 hPa

By the use of space-time spectral analysis and band-pass filter, some of the features of the medium-range Oscillations in the summer tropical easterlies (10oS-20o) at 200 hPa are investigated based on a two-year (1980 and 1982) wind (u, v) data set for the period from May to September. Space-time power spectral analysis shows that the total energy of the westward moving waves was the largest and that of the standing waves and eastward moving waves was relatively small in the 200 hPa easterlies; the total energy of the eastward moving waves was at minimum at 10oN. Three kind of the medium-range oscillations with about 50 day, 25 day and quasi-biweekly periods were found in the easterlies, which all show a remarkable interannual variation and latitudinal differences in these two years. The wave energy of zonal wind is mainly associated with the planetary waves (1-3), which all may make important contributions to the 50 day and 25 day oscillations in different years or different latitudes. The quasi-biweekly oscillation is mainly related to the synoptic waves (4-6). In equatorial region, the 50 day oscillation was dominant with a eastward phase propagation in 1982 while the dominant oscillation in 1980 was of 25day period with a westward phase propagations in 1980. Both of them are of the mode of zonal wavenumber 1. Strong westward 50 day oscillation was found in 10oN-20oN in these two years. Regular propagations of the meridional wind 50 day oscillation were also found in the easterlies.The 50 day and 25 day oscillation of zonal wind all demonstrate southward phase propagation over the region of the South Asia monsoon and northward phase propagation near interational date line, where are the climatic mean position of the tropical upper-tropospheric easterly jet and the tropical upper tropospheric trough (TUTT), respectively.