Intra-Seasonal Oscillations Associated with Indian Ocean Warm Pool and Summer Monsoon Rainfall and Their Inter-Annual Variability

Sea surface temperature (SST) and wind speed (WS) derived from Multichannel Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR), onboard IRS-P4 (Oceansat-1) satellite were used to generate spatially averaged (80° to 100° E & 0° to 10° S) daily data during June to September from 1999 to 2001 along with collocated outgoing long wave radiation (OLR) data from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis product. Daily rainfall data over the peninsular India during the above period was taken from the weekly weather report published by the Indian Meteorological Department. The data were then subjected to power spectral analysis. Dominant 30 to 60 days oscillations were observed over both ocean and land during all the 3 years investigated. It is quite interesting to note that the intra-seasonal oscillation with 60 days periodicity dominates in both ocean and land during 1999 and then transforms to 30 and 40 days periodicities in 2000 and 2001 respectively with a phase lag of about 25 to 30 days. It was also observed that the time-latitude section of zonally averaged OLR and TMI derived cloud liquid water data clearly depict the propagation of convection and cloud from the equator to the north at the rate of 0.75° to 1° latitude per day which corroborates well with the rate of propagation derived from the phase lag obtained between the processes occurring at the equatorial Indian Ocean and rainfall recorded at the designated land segments. The results are in good agreement with the observations made by earlier investigators.