Characteristics of certain surface meteorological parameters in relation to the interannual variability of Indian summer monsoon

With an objective to understand the influence of surface marine meteorological parameters in relation to the extreme monsoon activity over the Indian sub-continent leading to flood/drought, a detailed analysis of the sea level pressure over the Southern Hemisphere and various surface meteorological parameters over the Indian seas is carried out. The present study using the long term data sets (Southern Hemispheric Sea Level Pressure Analysis; Comprehensive Ocean Atmospheric Data Set over the Indian Seas; Surface Station Climatology Data) clearly indicates that the sea surface temperature changes over the south eastern Pacific (El Ninõ/La Niña) have only a moderate impact (not exceeding 50% reliability) on the Indian summer monsoon activity. On the other hand, the sea level pressure anomaly (SOI) over Australia and the south Pacific has a reasonably high degree of significance (more than 70%) with the monsoon activity over India. However, these two parameters (SLP and SST) do not show any significant variability over the Indian seas in relation to the summer monsoon activity. Over the Indian seas, the parameters which are mainly associated with the convective activity such as cloud cover, relative humidity and the surface wind were found to have a strong association with the extreme monsoon activity (flood/drought) and thus the net oceanic heat loss over the Indian seas provides a strong positive feed-back for the monsoon activity over India.     

Variation in the relationship of the Indian summer monsoon with global factors

Utilizing data for the long period 1871–1990, variation in the relationships between Indian monsoon rainfall (IMR) and tendencies of the global factors. Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and the sea surface temperature (SST) over eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean has been explored. The periods for which relationships exist have been identified. Tendencies from the season SON (Sept-Oct-Nov) to season DJF (Dec-Jan-Feb) and from DJF to MAM (Mar-Apr-May) before the Indian summer monsoon are indicated respectively by SOIT-2/SSTT-2 and SOIT-l/SSTT-1, current tendency from JJA (June-July-Aug) to SON, by SOIT0/SSTT0, tendencies from SON to DJF and DJF to MAM following monsoon, by SOIT1/SSTT1 and SOIT2/SSTT2 respectively. It is observed that while the relationships of IMR with SSTT-1, SSTT0 and SSTT2 exist almost throughout the whole period, that with SOIT-1 exists for 1942–1990, with SOIT0 for 1871–1921 and 1957–1990 and with SOIT2, for 1871–1921 only. The relationships that exist with SOIT-1, SOIT2, SSTT-1, SSTT2 and with SSTT0 (for period 1931–1990) are found to be very good and those that exist with SOIT0 for periods 1871–1921 and 1957–90 and for SSTT0 for the period 1871–1930 are good. It is thus seen that the relationships of SOIT-1, SOIT0 and SOIT2 with IMR do not correspond well with those of SSTT-1, SSTT0 and SSTT2 with IMR respectively, even though SOI and SST are closely related to each other for all the seasons. SOIT-1 and SSTT-1 can continue to be used as predictors for IMRDuring the whole period, IMR is found to play a passive, i.e. of being influenced or anticipated by SSTT-1 as well as an active role, i.e. of influencing or anticipating SSTT2. This implies a complex and perhaps non-linear interaction between IMR and SST tendency from DJF to MAM. Possibly, this is a part of the larger interaction between Asian monsoon rainfall and the tropical Pacific. A possible physical mechanism for the interaction is indicated.     

The kinetic energy budget of monsoon circulation over the Indian region during ISMEX-1973

A kinetic energy budget over the Indian region is computed for the period 4–9 July 1973, when a twin monsoon depression-one in the Bay of Bengal and another in the Arabian sea were the dominant synoptic features. The generation term caused by the cross-contour flow is a dominant source to the kinetic energy. The dissipation term is computed as a residual and is a major sink for the kinetic energy. The horizontal flux divergence is also a sink term but is much smaller in magnitude than other major source and sink terms. From the results it may be inferred that the generation term is the most important for the maintenance of monsoon disturbances.     

南太平洋和北太平洋年代际振荡与华北盛夏降水的关系及可能物理机制

利用降水、大气环流和海表温度等多种再分析资料和偏相关方法,研究了1951—2007年南太平洋年代际振荡（SPDO）和北太平洋年代际振荡（即PDO,本文称为NPDO）分别与华北盛夏（7—8月）降水在年代际时间尺度上的关系及其可能物理机制.结果表明：在去除SPDO和NPDO的相关性之前,它们与华北盛夏降水的关系均偏弱;但在去除两者相关性之后,SPDO（NPDO）与华北盛夏降水存在显著正（负）相关关系.去除两者相关性之后,当SPDO处于正位相时,热带西北太平洋海温异常显著偏暖,这将在对流层中下层从热带西太平洋—东亚沿岸激发出"气旋-反气旋-气旋"的负位相东亚—太平洋型遥相关（EAP）波列,该波列导致东亚夏季风异常增强,有利于低纬地区水汽输送至华北地区,从而使得华北盛夏降水异常偏多,反之,当SPDO处于负位相时,华北盛夏降水异常将偏少;对NPDO来说,当其处于正位相时,不仅热带西北太平洋异常显著偏冷,而且印度洋大部分海温异常显著偏暖,在两者共同作用下,对流层中下层从热带西太平洋—东亚沿岸出现"反气旋-气旋-反气旋"的正位相EAP波列,这将引起东亚夏季风异常减弱,不利于低纬地区水汽输送至华北地区,华北盛夏降水异常因此减少,反之,当NPDO处于负位相时,华北盛夏降水异常将偏多.     

Indian summer monsoon and El Nino

The associations between strong to moderate El Nino events and the all-India and subdivisional summer monsoon rainfall is examined for the period 1871 to 1978. The significance of the association is assessed by applying the Chi-square test to the contingency table. The analysis indicates that during 22 El Nino years the Indian monsoon rainfall was mostly below normal over most parts of the country. However, the association between El Nino and deficient rainfall or drought is statistically significant over the subdivisions west of longitude 80°E and north of 12°N. During the five strong El Nino years—1877, 1899, 1911, 1918, and 1972—many areas of India suffered large rainfall deficiencies and severe droughts. There are four moderate El Nino years—1887, 1914, 1953, and 1976—when the suffering was marginal. The relationship between El Nino and the Indian monsoon rainfall is expected to be useful in forecasting large-scale anomalies in the monsoon over India.     

A study of the empirical functions of the height fields over India and their relation with the rainfall

The empirical orthogonal functions have been obtained for the individual summer monsoon (June through September) months using the grid point values of monthly 700 mb geopotential heights over Indian region. The data for 21 summer monsoon months for the years 1958 to 1978 have been used in the present computation. The major variance reduction is due to the first three dominant functions accounting over 80% of the total variance in each month. The variance reduction only due to the first function ranges from 45 to 65%. The first function has in-pbase oscillation throughout the area indicating that the area under study is homogeneous and the centre of the oscillation lies over northwest India. The amplitudes of the first function also show generally quasipers stence in their sign within a season. The second function has two centres of action over the region of monsoon trough which are in phase. The third function has also two centres oriented in the east-west direction but they are in the opposite phase. Fairly large values of correlation coefficients between the patterns of the different monsoon months suggest that the patterns for these months corresponding to the first and the second functions respectively are quite similar. The patterns for these months also evolve with time in a related way. The spectrum analysis to the time series of amplitudes indicates the presence of the quasi-periodicity of 3 years during these monsoon months. The amplitudes corresponding to the dominant functions are found to be significantly related with the rainfall of central and western parts of India     

Sedimentary budget of the Northwest Sub-basin,South China Sea: controlling factors and geological implications

ABSTRACT

We calculated the sedimentary budget of the Northwest Sub-basin (NWSB), South China Sea for different geological times based on interpretations of four multichannel seismic profiles across the basin with constraints from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expeditions 367 and 368 drilling results. Sedimentation was generally dominated by regional tectonic events and climate change, but complicated by local tectonic events and geographic position, which resulted in a specific sedimentary budget in the NWSB compared with other marginal basins and the Southwest Sub-basin. The sedimentation rate was relatively low following the opening of the NWSB but increased gradually during the Middle Miocene, corresponding to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the Asian monsoon. It reached its peak in the Late Miocene, corresponding to uplift of the Dongsha Island region that caused intensive bypass of eroded sediments from the Baiyun Sag into the abyssal basin, and reduced again during the Pliocene because of sediment storage on the wide northern continental shelf area compared to the abyssal basin during a period of high-stand sea level. Increase in sedimentation during the Pleistocene suggests that continental erosion and sediment transport to the abyssal basin were enhanced by an intensified Asian summer monsoon and glacial-interglacial climate fluctuations. Since the opening of the NWSB, the primary sediment provenance has been from southern China, with minor contributions from the Red River, Hainan Island, as well as local uplifts on the continental shelf.     

Progress of loess research in China

Progress in Chinese loess research made in recent 15 years was introduced in this paper, including mainly distribution and paleoenvironment significance of Chinese loess, new development of loess formation age, red-brown paleosol types and environmental change, loess-paleosol sequence and climate cycles, monsoon strength change during last interglacial and last glacial periods in the Loess Plateau, climate events, and source areas of loess and material.     

Simulations of LGM climate of East Asia by regional climate model

ClimateconditionsintheLastGlacialMaximum(LGM)wereremarkablydifferentfromthepresentones.LGMglobalmeantemperaturewas5℃-10℃dropbutprecipitationdecreasescommonly.LGMhasbecomethekeyphasetoreconstructtheearthenvironmentalfield,retrieveextremecoldclimatecondit…     

冬小麦冠层氮素的垂直分布及光谱响应

考察了田间条件下冬小麦主要生育阶段冠层氮素、叶绿素的垂直分布及其光谱响应。不同叶层的叶片含氮量按上 (冠层顶部向下至 1 / 3株高处 )、中、下层的顺序呈明显下降的梯度 ,全生育期不同土壤施氮处理平均 ,上、中层间相差 1 3 3% ,中、下层间相差 2 9 5 %。在生育前期 ,各层叶片的含氮量随土壤供氮水平增高而增加 ,但不同叶层间氮素的梯度相对稳定。到生育中后期 ,中、下层叶片间氮素含量梯度增大 ,且随土壤供氮水平增高而加剧 ,最大时可相差 4 5 3% ;冠层内叶绿素 (a b)含量的垂直分布规律与氮素含量的垂直分布相类似 ,但对土壤供氮水平的反应上表现出与氮素不尽一致的趋势。不同叶层的光谱特征表现为 ,在土壤低氮水平下 ,不同叶层间在红光波段、短波红外波段 (1 4 0 0nm— 1 80 0nm及 1 95 0nm— 2 30 0nm)的反射率差异显著 ,下部叶层的反射率显著高于上、中叶层 ,但在土壤高氮水平下 ,上述差异消失 ;在近红外平台处 ,不同叶层间反射率按上、中、下顺序降低 ,梯度分布特征明显。利用近红外波段的冠层反射光谱能够很好地反演中下层叶片的叶绿素含量