Introduction to Animation Map Products on the TCC Website
In November 2012, TCC started providing new monitoring products called Animation
Maps on its website. These resources useful in monitoring intraseasonal variations ofconvective activity and atmospheric circulation. This article briefly introduces the products
and highlights some examples of analysis.
Animation Maps are available athttps://www.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/clisys/acmi.html.
1. General explanation
The Animation Maps web pages cover four areas: the Asian Region, the NorthernHemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere and the Global Area. Data on major elements foruse in monitoring extratropical circulation (such as sea level pressure, 500-hPa
geopotential height and 850-hPa temperature) shown on polar stereographic charts areavailable on the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere pages, and data foruse in monitoring tropical convective activity and circulation (such as outgoing
longwave radiation (OLR), velocity potential and stream function) are available on theAsian Region and Global Area pages. Animation Maps are available for the period from
September 1947 to two days prior, and are updated every day.
Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the Northern Hemisphere page with selectableelements and dates in the pull-down menus (B) and (E), respectively. Two elements canbe shown simultaneously except on the Global Area page. Daily, 5-day, 7-day, 10-day
and 30-day average charts are available for all elements (default: 5-day mean) and canbe selected from the pull-down menu (A). Clicking the +1-day and -1-day buttons in (C)moves the charts forward and backward, respectively, by one day. The buttons in D
control the animation.
The following sections highlight two examples for analysis using Animation Maps.
These involve the propagation of tropical intraseasonal oscillations and seasonal marchof the Asian summer monsoon.

Figure 1 Animation Maps page layout (Northern Hemisphere)
2. Example 1: Propagation of tropical intraseasonal oscillations
The Global Area page supports monitoring of intraseasonal oscillations such as theMadden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), which propagates eastward along the equator. Whenthe pull-down menus here are set as shown in Figure 2, the page displays a seven-day
mean chart of OLR (shading), 200-hPa velocity potential (contours) and 200-hPa
divergence wind (vectors) anomalies for the period from 24 February to 1 March 2012.
The chart displayed shows blue shading (active convection) and green contours(stronger-than-normal divergence at the upper troposphere) over the Indian Ocean,
indicating that the active phase of the MJO is located there.

Figure 2 Global Area page pull-down menu settings for Example 1
By clicking the +1-day button repeatedly or the Start button once, the users canfollow the eastward movement of the MJO along the equator (Figure 3). It can be seenthat the MJO moved eastward and reached the maritime continent in mid-March andthe western Pacific in late of the month. After that, it was not clearly seen over SouthAmerica and the Atlantic, but appeared again in amplified form over the Indian Ocean
in mid-April.
It is well known that northward-moving intraseasonal oscillations appearing over thenorthern Indian Ocean during boreal summer affect Asian Monsoon activity. Animation
Maps are useful for monitoring such intraseasonal variations.

Figure 3 Example of Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) monitoring
Each panel shows the seven-day average for the period ending on the date shown in its
upper-left corner. The shading indicates outgoing longwave radiation anomalies (OLR;W/m2), and the contours show 200-hPa velocity potential anomalies at intervals of 1 x
106 m2/s. The vectors denote 200-hPa divergent wind anomalies.
3. Example 2: Seasonal march of the Asian summer monsoon
This section outlines the display of the Asian summer monsoon’s normal seasonal
march using Animation Maps from the Asian Region. Five-day mean charts of normal
conditions for upper and lower tropospheric circulation with convective activity can bedisplayed on this page by setting the pull-down menus as shown in Figure 4. Theshading and contours indicate OLR and the stream function, respectively. The panels on
the left and right panels show the upper and lower troposphere.

Figure 4 Asian Region page pull-down menu settings for Example 2
By clicking the +1-day button repeatedly or the Start button once, the user can follow
the seasonal march of the Asian summer monsoon, which exhibits a meridionaltransition of active convection areas, monsoon westerly winds in the lower troposphere,
and the development of the Tibetan High in the upper troposphere (Figure 5).
Running animations of actual and normal conditions side by side on the Asian Region
page allows analysis of advances or delay of the seasonal march with respect to thenormal.

Figure 5 Seasonal march of the normal Asian summer monsoon
Each figure shows five-day average for the period ending on the date shown in its
upper-right corner. The shading indicates normal outgoing longwave radiation (OLR;W/m2), and the contours show normal (upper) 200-hPa and (lower) 850-hPa streamfunction at intervals of 5 and 2.5 x 106 m2/s, respectively.
These examples are only two instances of how Animation Maps can be used. Those on
the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere pages are useful for monitoring
intraseasonal variations of atmospheric circulation such as the development and decayof blocking highs and teleconnection patterns.