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Previous studies showed that the activity of monsoon low-pressure systems (LPS), which produce a large fraction of the South Asian monsoon's total rainfall, is modulated by intraseasonal variability. Using satellite-derived products and atmospheric reanalyzes, this study examines how the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) separately modulates the occurrence of weaker LPS (lows) and stronger LPS (depressions). It is found that the genesis of lows is insensitive to ISO phase, while depressions exhibit a strong preference for genesis during the phase that is convectively active over the northern Indian Ocean. Essentially, development of LPS into depressions depends upon the timing of genesis of the initial disturbance. Evidence is presented supporting the hypothesis that the development of lows into depressions is fostered by large-scale atmospheric conditions governed by the ISO. Results also suggest that while lows have no preference for forming over ocean compared to land, depressions mostly form over ocean.

This study reports on the analysis of the results from a 20 km grid spacing, Regional Coupled ocean–atmosphere Model (RCM) integration over the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WP2). The RCM was integrated over a 20‐year period (1986–2005) using reanalysis boundary conditions for the atmosphere and the ocean. This is a first‐of‐a‐kind study with an RCM at 20 km over the WP2. The RCM simulation shows reasonable fidelity of the mean state and of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO). We utilize this successful integration of the RCM to understand a well‐known observed feature of MJOs in the WP2 to be of the strongest amplitude during the December–March period of the year. Our analysis of the model integration reveals that the recharge of moist static energy (MSE) prior to peak MJO convection and its discharge during and after the convection explains the MJO in the simulation. The recharge/discharge of the MSE is shown to be largely dictated by horizontal advection, which is stemmed to a small extent by column‐integrated radiative heating and surface evaporation. This balance of forces in the evolution of the MSE anomalies and their corresponding variations with sea‐surface temperature (SST) anomalies at MJO time‐scales in the WP2 is strongest in the December–March period in the RCM simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]