Graphical Abstract

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Harada, Y., H. Kamahori, C. Kobayashi, H. Endo, S. Kobayashi, Y. Ota, H. Onoda, K. Onogi, K. Miyaoka, and K. Takahashi, 2016: The JRA-55 Reanalysis: Representation of atmospheric circulation and climate variability. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 94, 269-302.
https://doi.org/10.2151/jmsj.2016-015
Graphical Abstract

Highlights:

• Improvements were found in the representation of atmospheric circulation on the isentropic surface (Fig. 1) and in the consistency of momentum budget based on the mass-weighted isentropic zonal mean (MIM) method.
• In the tropics, the frequencies of high spatial correlations with precipitation estimated using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) are clearly higher in JRA-55 than in JRA-25 (Fig. 6).
• The results indicate that JRA-55 generally improved the representation of phenomena on a wide range of space–time scales, such as equatorial waves, and transient eddies in the storm track regions, compared with JRA-25 during the satellite era, and improved the temporal consistency compared with the older reanalyses throughout the reanalysis period.