PI: Yuejian Zhu, Co-PIs: Malaquias Peņa, Wei Li, Xiaqiong Zhou, Hong Guan. Collaborators: Dingchen Hou, Richard Wobus, Xu Li, Qin Zhang, Dan Collins, Jon Gottschalck

• Testing the sensitivity/dependency of the GEFS monthly forecast skill of temperature, precipitation (mainly over CONUS) and the relavant phenomenon (e.g. MJO) on different SST configurations, stochastic schemes, and model resolutions
• Investigating the dependency of MJO skill on initial amplitude, phase and season in GEFS monthly forecast and the potential link between MJO and major variables over CONUS
• Assessing if the spread of the ensemble well represents the uncertainty in the forecast on major atmospheric variables and (or) MJO
• Investigating the potential in soil temperature and moisture perturbation