Water vapour periodicities over Indian Ocean during contrasting monsoons from NOAA satellite data

The satellite-derived moisture fields during different phases of two normal and poor monsoon years have been studied. Spectral analysis was performed in different zones of the monsoon region to study the nature and modes of intraseasonal fluctuations of lower layer moisture fields. Seasonal mean fields of water vapour at low and middle layers show a dry anomaly over the Arabian subcontinent and a wet anomaly over the Bay of Bengal during good monsoon years, while the anomalies show an opposite trend during the poor monsoon years. The zonal and meridional propagation of low-frequency oscillations of moisture fields has also been examined. The southward movement of low-frequency oscillations seems to be suppressed in good monsoon years as compared to the poor monsoon years, whereas the northward movement of the same shows no particular difference. Fluctuations in the 30–50 day range are found shifted to longer time-period side in the poor monsoon years.