Interannual variability of monsoons in Malaysia and its relationship with ENSO

Interannual variations of the monsoons have been studied utilising homogeneous rainfall records of 41 years (1951–1991) from Malaysia and upper air data of stations in Asia, Australia and Western Pacific. Sources of upper air data are U.S. Department of Commerce and Kuala Lumpur Northern Winter Monsoon Activity Centre. Extreme wet and dry years have been identified and the influence of ENSO on Malaysian annual rainfall has been discussed. Influence of ENSO on the performance of northern summer and winter monsoons has also been studied from Malaysian rainfall data. Further, regional circulation patterns associated with El Nino and La Nina years have also been identified. No linear trend has been found in the annual rainfall of 16 stations in Malaysia. Most El Nino years are associated with below median and La Nina years with above median rainfall at most stations in Malaysia. ENSO has greater influence over East Malaysia than peninsular Malaysia. Interannual variability of rainfall with reference to ENSO conditions has been discussed in details. Also, circulation features have been identified to foresee El Nino/La Nina events.     

太平洋环流速度减慢的原因

对南极气温资料、环南极海冰资料、太平洋海温资料、厄尔尼诺和拉尼娜资料的模拟验证，发现厄尔尼诺事件发生与德雷克海峡海冰减少在时间上有对应关系。南极半岛海冰减少是太平洋环流速度减慢的原因，德雷克海峡的海冰起重要作用。这一综合检验结果给出以日食—厄尔尼诺系数预测厄尔尼诺事件的有效性和准确性。两年周期的太平洋海温振荡使日食与厄尔尼诺之间存在12～24个月的位相差。     

The effect of El Nino and La Nina on lightning activity: its relation with meteorological and cloud microphysical parameters

The decadal variation of lightning activity over Northeast India (NEI) from the year 2002 to 2011 is studied with the help of satellite-based lightning imaging sensor (LIS) data. An anomalous 56 % increase in lightning activity is observed in the year 2010 with respect to the previous years. To investigate the reason behind this increase, the LIS data are analyzed with several meteorological and cloud microphysical parameters. These parameters are convective sources of cloud ice, cloud top temperature, surface temperature, convective precipitation rate and total ice water content and convective available potential energy. On a synoptic scale, the period of anomalous lightning activity could be related to the development of an El Nino event at the middle of 2009 that broke down in the early months of the next year with a rapid transition to La Nina by August 2010. Analyses expose that El Nino Southern Oscillation might have diversely modified the local meteorological and cloud microphysical parameters. It comes out that this rapid transition from El Nino to La Nina condition could be the possible reason behind the dramatic increase in lightning activity, which was not previously documented over NEI.     

Variability of the date of monsoon onset over Kerala (India) of the period 1870–2014 and its relation to sea surface temperature

Monsoon onset over Kerala (India) which occurs every year is a major climatic phenomenon that involves large scale changes in wind, rainfall and sea surface temperature (SST). Over the last 150 years, the date of monsoon onset over Kerala (DMOK) has varied widely, the earliest being 11 May, 1918 and the most delayed being 18 June, 1972. DMOK has a long term (1870–2014) mean of 01 June and standard deviation of 7–8 days. We have studied the inter-annual and decadal time scale variability of DMOK and their relation with SST. We found that SST anomalies of large spatial scale similar to those in El Nino/La Nina are associated with the inter-annual variability in DMOK. Indian Ocean between latitudes \(5^{\circ }\hbox {S}\) and \(20^{\circ }\hbox {N}\) has two episodes of active convection associated with monsoon onset over Kerala (MOK), one around DMOK and the other about six weeks earlier (called pre-monsoon rain peak or bogus monsoon onset) and in between a two week period of suppressed convection occurs over north Indian Ocean. A prominent decadal time scale variability was found in DMOK having large and statistically significant linear correlation with the SST gradient across the equator over Indian and Pacific oceans, the large correlation persisting for several months prior to the MOK. However, no linear trend was seen in DMOK during the long period from 1870 to 2014.     

ENSO-7赤道西太平洋异常纬向风所驱动的热带太平洋次表层海温距平的循环

近几年的一系列分析研究表明，ENSO与异常东亚冬季风之间有相互影响，持续的强（弱）东亚冬季风通过引起赤道西太平洋地区的西（东）风异常对El Niño/La Niña的发生起着重要作用；赤道太平洋次表层海温异常（SOTA）的年际变化（循环）与ENSO发生有密切关系；ENSO的真正源在西太平洋暖池，暖池正（负）SOTA沿赤道温跃层东传到东太平洋，便导致El Niño/La Niña的爆发；在暖池正（负）SOTA沿赤道东传的同时，有负（正）SOTA沿10°N和10°S纬度带向西传播，从而构成SOTA的循环；热带太平洋SOTA循环的驱动者是赤道西太平洋的异常纬向风。进而可以认为：ENSO实质上是主要由异常东亚季风引起的赤道西太平洋异常纬向风所驱动的热带太平洋次表层海温距平的年际循环。     

Trends and extreme value analysis of rainfall pattern over homogeneous monsoon regions of India

Trends of pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon rainfall pattern were studied on decadal basis over different homogeneous monsoon regions in India for the period 1871–2008. It is attempted to understand the relation of monsoon rainfall with the global teleconnections of El Niño and La Niña, for which the correlation analysis has been carried out with Darwin pressure and Niño 3.4 sea surface temperature (Niño 3.4 SST). The correlation analysis inferred that the significant correlations were observed when monsoon rainfall is related to ENSO indices on decadal scale than on annual ones. The study also found that the north-west region is more affected by the moderate El Niño years compared to strong El Niño years. The regions Central North-East and North-East could not make any difference among weak, moderate and strong La Niña events. The authors also have carried out the extreme value analysis over different homogeneous monsoon regions of India as well as for whole India. The results show that the return values of rainfall are increasing with the return periods for the forthcoming 10, 20, 50 and 100 years. The heterogeneity in number of threshold years that were recorded for the extreme rainfall over north-east (humid climatic type) and north-west (arid climatic type) described the climate variability. The results of the present study may be useful for the policy makers in understanding the rainfall exceedance in different return periods for planning the risk management strategies.     

全球气候变暖对西北地区秋季降水的影响

分析了在全球气候变暖背景下,西北地区秋季降水的时空变化特征和主要影响因素,发现秋季降水量的均值突变现象在四季中最为明显,西北地区东部和西部降水在年代际尺度上具有相反的变化趋势.El Nino年秋季,新疆脊偏强,印缅槽偏弱,西北地区东部降水偏少;La Nina年秋季降水形势相反.CO₂倍增情况下的数值试验表明,西北地区西部夏季降水增加明显,而秋季不明显;西北地区东部夏季降水呈减少趋势,而秋季降水增加明显.     

ENSO事件对青藏高原古里雅冰芯中现代δ18O的影响

对１９５１～１９９２年青藏高原古里雅冰芯中δ＾１８Ｏ与Ｉ（南方涛动指数）,δ＾１８Ｏ与赤道东太平洋ＳＳＴ（海表面温度）的关系进行了分析。在Ｅ１Ｎｉｎｏ年,无论是隆冬还是盛夏,古里雅冰芯中δ＾１８Ｏ均减小。表现为明显的降温,平均降温幅度分别为１．２℃和０．４５。在特强Ｅ１Ｎｉｎｏ年,平均降温幅度分别为２．０３℃和１．４６℃。在ＬａＮｉｎａ年,盛夏古里雅;冰芯中δ＾１８Ｏ增大,表现为明显的增温,平均     

Intra-Seasonal Oscillation (ISO) of south Kerala rainfall during the summer monsoons of 1901–1995

Time series of daily averaged rainfall of about 40 rain gauge stations of south Kerala, situated at the southern-most part of peninsular India between latitudes about 8‡N and 10‡N were subjected to Wavelet Analysis to study the Intra Seasonal Oscillation (ISO) in the rainfall and its inter-annual variability. Of the 128 days, 29th May to 3rd October of each of the 95 years 1901-1995 were analysed. We find that the period of ISO does not vary during a monsoon season in most of the years, but it has large inter-annual variability in the range 23 to 64 days. Period-wise, the years cluster into two groups of ISO, the SHORT consisting of periods 23, 27 and 32 days and the LONG with a single period of 64 days, both the sets at a significance level of 99%. During the 95 years at this level of significance there are 44 years with SHORT and 20 years with LONG periods. 11 years have no ISO even at the 90% level of significance. We composited NCEP SST anomalies of the summer monsoon season June to September for two groups of years during the period 1965–1993. The first group is of 5 years with a LONG ISO period of 64 days for south Kerala rainfall at significance level of 99% and the second group is of 12 years with SHORT ISO periods of 23, 27 and 32 days at the same level of significance. The SST anomaly for the LONG (SHORT) ISO resembles that for an El Nino (La Nina).     

Variability of Indian monsoon-ENSO relationship in a 1000-year MRI-CGCM2.2 simulation

There is a close relationship between interannual variability of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (drought conditions over India accompany warm ENSO events and vice versa). However, recent observations suggest a weakening of this ENSO-monsoon relationship that may be linked to global warming. We report here an analysis of the ENSO-monsoon relationship within the framework of a 1000-year control simulation of the MRI-coupled general circulation model (GCM), MRI-CGCM2.2. An overall correlation between the June-July-August (JJA) Nino3.4 sea surface temperature and the JJA Indian monsoon rainfall is –0.39, with reasonable circulation characteristics associated with the modeled ENSO. The simulated ENSO-monsoon relationship reveals long-term variations, from –0.71 to +0.07, in moving 31-year windows. This modulation in the ENSO-monsoon relationship is associated with decadal variability of the climate system.     

About the variability in thunderstorm and rainfall activity over India and its association with El Niño and La Niña

Thunderstorms are of much importance in tropics, as this region is considered to have central role in the convective overturn of the atmosphere and play an important role in rainfall activity. It is well known that El Niño and La Niña are well associated with significant climate anomalies at many places around the globe. Therefore, an attempt is made in this study to analyze variability in thunderstorm days and rainfall activity over Indian region and its association with El Niño and La Niña using data of thunderstorm day’s for 64 stations well distributed all over India for the period 1981–2005 (25 years). It is seen that thunderstorm activity is higher and much variable during pre-monsoon (MAM) and southwest monsoon (JJAS) than the rest of the year. Positive correlation coefficients (CCs) are seen between thunderstorms and rainfall except for the month of June during which the onset of the southwest monsoon sets over the country. CCs during winter months are highly correlated. Composite anomalies in thunderstorms during El Niño and La Niña years suggest that ENSO conditions altered the patterns of thunderstorm activity over the country. Positive anomalies are seen during pre-monsoon (MAM) and southwest monsoon months (JAS) during La Niña years. Opposite features are seen in southwest monsoon during El Niño periods, but El Niño favors thunderstorm activity during pre-monsoon months. There is a clear contrast between the role of ENSO during southwest monsoon and post-monsoon on thunderstorm activity over the country. Time series of thunderstorms and precipitation show strong association with similarities in their year-to-year variation over the country.     

大气、海洋与固体地球的能量交换

通过对南极气温资料、南极臭氧资料、环南极海冰资料、太平洋海温资料、地球自转速度变化资料、厄尔尼诺和拉尼娜资料的模拟验证，发现厄尔尼诺事件发生与德雷克海峡海冰减少在时间上有一一对应关系。南极半岛海冰减少是太平洋环流速度减慢的原因，德雷克海峡的海冰起重要作用。大气、海洋与固体地球的角动量交换在南、北半球有不同的形式。强震起源于海平面振荡。     

Inter-annual variability of summer monsoon rainfall over Orissa (India) in relation to cyclonic disturbances

The summer monsoon rainfall over Orissa, a state on the eastern coast of India, is more significantly related than Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) to the cyclonic disturbances developing over the Bay of Bengal. Orissa experiences floods and droughts very often due to variation in the characteristics of these disturbances. Hence, an attempt was made to find out the inter-annual variability in the rainfall over Orissa and the frequencies of different categories of cyclonic disturbances affecting Orissa during monsoon season (June–September). For this purpose, different statistical characteristics, such as mean, coefficient of variation, trends and periodicities in the rainfall and the frequencies of different categories of cyclonic disturbances affecting Orissa, were analysed from 100 years (1901–2000) of data. The basic objective of the study was to find out the contribution of inter-annual variability in the frequency of cyclonic disturbances to the inter-annual variability of monsoon rainfall over Orissa. The relationship between summer monsoon rainfall over Orissa and the frequency of cyclonic disturbances affecting Orissa shows temporal variation. The correlation between them has significantly decreased since the 1950s. The variation in their relationship is mainly due to the variation in the frequency of cyclonic disturbances affecting Orissa. The variability of both rainfall and total cyclonic disturbances has been above normal since the 1960s, leading to more floods and droughts over Orissa during recent years. The inter-annual variability of seasonal rainfall over Orissa and the frequency of cyclonic disturbances affecting Orissa during monsoon season show a quasi-biennial oscillation period of 2–2.8 years. There is least impact of El Nino southern oscillation (ENSO) on inter-annual variability of both the seasonal rainfall over Orissa and the frequencies of monsoon depressions/total cyclonic disturbances affecting Orissa.     

The WRF model performance for the simulation of heavy precipitating events over Ahmedabad during August 2006

The summer monsoon season of the year 2006 was highlighted by an unprecedented number of monsoon lows over the central and the western parts of India, particularly giving widespread rainfall over Gujarat and Rajasthan. Ahmedabad had received 540.2mm of rainfall in the month of August 2006 against the climatological mean of 219.8mm. The two spells of very heavy rainfall of 108.4mm and 97.7mm were recorded on 8 and 12 August 2006 respectively. Due to meteorological complexities involved in replicating the rainfall occurrences over a region, the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF-ARW version) modeling system with two different cumulus schemes in a nested configuration is chosen for simulating these events. The spatial distributions of large-scale circulation and moisture fields have been simulated reasonably well in this model, though there are some spatial biases in the simulated rainfall pattern. The rainfall amount over Ahmedabad has been underestimated by both the cumulus parameterization schemes. The quantitative validation of the simulated rainfall is done by calculating the categorical skill scores like frequency bias, threat scores (TS) and equitable threat scores (ETS). In this case the KF scheme has outperformed the GD scheme for the low precipitation threshold.     

ENSO循环过程与南极海冰变化

应用1951-2001年ENSO特征指数(NINO1+2、NINO3、NINO4、NINO3.4、SOI)和1973-1998年南极海冰北界范围以及1950-2001年SODA海洋温度资料,分析探讨了ENSO循环过程与南极海冰之间的关系,研究了南大洋和太平洋海表温度与南极海冰之间的内在联系。结果表明,南极海冰变化与ENSO循环过程存在一定联系,特别是东南极海冰的变化与ENSO循环过程较为密切。这种遥相关关系表明,ENSO循环过程不仅与热带海洋自身的海 气相互作用存在密切关系,而且与南极海冰之间也存在一定的联系。当东南极海冰范围出现异常增大和减小时,在时滞一年之后,NINO循环指数将出现减弱和加强,而南方涛动指数将出现加强和减弱。这种相关关系的机制是通过大洋环流这一载体将异常海温向北输送来实现的。南极海冰范围的异常增加或减少,会直接影响南极绕极流的冷暖结构进而影响经向水体输送的异常,从而导致热带和副热带太平洋上层海温场的异常变化,对ElNino和LaNina事件的发生起到推动作用。     

Relationship between the southern oscillation/El Nino and rainfall in some tropical and midlatitude regions

Association of ENSO (El Nino/southern oscillation) events with annual rainfalls in S. America, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand was found to be poor except for India and Victoria. For these two regions the relationships were one-sided i.e. most of the ENSO were associated with droughts; but many droughts were not associated with ENSO. for some rainfall series, the relationships are significant and prominent periodicities existed in the long periodicity region.     

青海省东部地区气候变化与ENSO事件关系

ENSO(厄尔尼诺-南方涛动)事件的发生会影响区域气候变化。通过对青海东部地区5个站点1959~2005年的降水、气温资料、干燥度和海表温度距平(SSTA)与南方涛动指数(SOI)的月序列进行相关性分析和周期性谱分析,探讨了区域气候变化与ENSO事件的关系。结果表明,1959~2005年青海省东部地区气候趋于暖干,并且冬春季变化趋势显著;暖事件的发生对该区域降水、气温及干燥度的变化影响较大,且气温对ENSO事件的响应要大于降水;ENSO事件对该区域的气候变化有两到三个月的影响期,EI Nino事件的发生对当月的影响较大,而La Nina事件的发生对该区域有两到三个月的持续影响期;降水距平及气温距平与ENSO事件存在短期相同的变化趋势,且该地区气候变化受南方涛动影响明显。     

厄尔尼诺事件对太湖流域降水的影响

为了揭示1951~2016年厄尔尼诺事件影响下太湖流域夏季(6~8月)降水特征,分析了厄尔尼诺事件开始年与结束年的降水状况。结果表明:太湖流域降雨与厄尔尼诺事件存在一定的关系:(1)弱强度厄尔尼诺事件起始年的6月与6~8月、结束年的6月与7月降水均以正常、大旱与极旱为主;中等强度厄尔尼诺事件起始年的6月与6~8月以正常与大涝为主,结束年同时段以正常、偏旱与大旱为主;(超)强厄尔尼诺事件起始年6月以正常或大旱为主,8月以正常或大涝为主,结束年刚好相反。(2)(超)强厄尔尼诺起始年的夏季,西太平洋副热带高压面积偏小,位置偏东,而结束年的夏季,西伸脊点加强西伸,利于太湖流域降雨偏多。(3)(超)强厄尔尼诺起始年的全年编号台风以偏少为主,登陆台风正常略偏少,但事件的起始年夏季6~8月编号台风却以偏多为主,结束年秋季9~11月登陆台风以偏多为主;结束年6月降雨偏多,登陆台风向秋季集中,易造成流域持续洪涝,对防洪产生不利影响。     

基于石笋记录的晚全新世太平洋东西两岸季风区气候事件对比研究

研究晚全新世季风气候演变有助于进一步认识与预测未来季风区气候变化。太平洋东西两岸是全球季风集中分布的地区,已经有大量的古气候记录发表,但是缺乏对各个季风区气候突变事件以及整体变化趋势的对比研究。针对这一问题,选取亚洲季风区、印澳季风区、北美季风区、南美季风区11个洞穴石笋δ18O和1个湖泊Ti含量,对比研究各个记录在3.5~0.5 ka B.P.期间指示的夏季风变化特征。通过对比发现四大季风区的石笋δ18O在晚全新世整体上呈现偏正趋势,指示夏季风减弱;2次重要的气候突变事件1.5 ka B.P.和2.7 ka B.P.弱夏季风事件在各个季风区内均有表现;同时也记录了一系列十年际-百年际尺度的弱夏季风事件,表明太平洋东西两岸和南北半球的夏季风都有减弱的趋势,这与先前研究认为的南北半球呈现"see-saw"模式表现出不一样的特征。晚全新世以来ENSO(El Nino-Southern Oscillation)活动的增强对太平洋东西两岸南北半球夏季风减弱具有重要影响。在El Nino事件发生时,Walker环流减弱,而且它的上升支向东移动远离西太平洋暖池,西太平洋副热带高压增强并向西移动,导致亚洲夏季风减弱。Walker环流的东移也会使得印度尼西亚-太平洋暖池(Indo-Pacific Warm Pool,简称IPWP)海温下降,热带季节内震荡减弱致使印澳夏季风减弱;此外,El Nino事件发生时,赤道东太平洋海水温度上升导致东西太平洋海水温度梯度减弱,在此状态下南美季风区低空急流(Low Level Jet,简称LLJ)减弱,导致南美夏季风减弱;同时,北美洲加勒比海低空急流增强,使得该季风区下沉气流增强,导致北美夏季风减弱。我们的研究表明,在晚全新世ENSO活动增强的状态下,太平洋东西两岸南北半球夏季风变化可能都呈现减弱趋势。     

Simulation of a flood producing rainfall event of 29 July 2010 over north-west Pakistan using WRF-ARW model

Simulation of a flood producing rainfall event of 29 July 2010 over north-west Pakistan has been carried out using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. This extraordinary rainfall event was localized over north-west Pakistan and recorded 274 mm of rainfall at Peshawar (34.02°N, 71.58°E), within a span of 24 h on that eventful day where monthly July normal rainfall is only 46.1 mm. The WRF model was run with the triple-nested domains of 27, 9, and 3 km horizontal resolution using Kain–Fritsch cumulus parameterization scheme having YSU planetary boundary layer. The model performance was evaluated by examining the different simulated parameters. The model-derived rainfall was compared with Pakistan Meteorological Department–observed rainfall. The model suggested that this flood producing heavy rainfall event over north-west region of Pakistan might be the result of an interaction of active monsoon flow with upper air westerly trough (mid-latitude). The north-west Pakistan was the meeting point of the southeasterly flow from the Bay of Bengal following monsoon trough and southwesterly flow from the Arabian Sea which helped to transport high magnitude of moisture. The vertical profile of the humidity showed that moisture content was reached up to upper troposphere during their mature stage (monsoon system usually did not extent up to that level) like a narrow vertical column where high amounts of rainfall were recorded. The other favourable conditions were strong vertical wind shear, low-level convergence and upper level divergence, and strong vorticity field which demarked the area of heavy rainfall. The WRF model might be able to simulate the flood producing rainfall event over north-west Pakistan and associated dynamical features reasonably well, though there were some spatial and temporal biases in the simulated rainfall pattern.