Impact of Ocean-Continent Distribution over Southern Asia on the Formation of Summer Monsoon

Using the CCM3/NCAR, a series of numerical experiments are designed to explore the effect of ocean-land interlaced distributions of Africa-Arabian Sea-India Peninsula-Bay of Bengal (BOB)-Indo-China Peninsula-South China Sea on the formation of the Asian summer monsoon circulation (ASMC). The results show that the thermal difference between African or Indian Subcontinent and nearby areas including the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and part of BOB is the primary mechanism that maintains the Indian monsoon circulation. In the experiment getting rid of these two continents, the Indian monsoon system (IMS) members, i.e., the Somali cross-equatorial jet (40°E) and the southwesterly monsoon over the Arabian Sea and BOB, almost disappear. Moreover, the Hadley circulation weakens dominantly. It also proves that Africa has greater effect than Indian Subcontinent on the IMS. However, the existence of Indo-China Peninsula and Australia strengthens the East Asian monsoon system (EAMS). The thermal contrast between Indo-China Peninsula and SCS, Australia and western Pacific Ocean plays an important role in the formation of the tropical monsoon to the south of the EAMS. When the Indo-China Peninsula is masked in the experiment, the cross-equatorial flow (105°E and 125°E) vanishes, so does the southwesterly monsoon usually found over East Asia, and EAMS is enfeebled significantly. In addition, the impacts of these thermal contrasts on the distribution of the summer precipitation and surface temperature are investigated.