Open AccessSouth American monsoon indices
Author(s) -
Gan Manoel A.,
Rao Vadlamudi B.,
Moscati Marley C. L.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl.119
Subject(s) - climatology , wind shear , precipitation , zonal and meridional , monsoon , environmental science , index (typography) , atmospheric sciences , geology , meteorology , wind speed , geography , world wide web , computer science
Four monsoon indices (the meridional wind shear index (MWSI), the zonal wind shear index (ZWSI), the 850‐hPa zonal wind index (850ZWI) and the 850‐hPa zonal and meridional wind index (UVI)) based on the characteristics of the wind circulation are used to identify the onset and the demise dates and the intraseasonal variability of the rainy season over the west central Brazil (WCB) region. All the four‐index time series have a high correlation with the precipitation series over WCB. The UVI, MWSI and the 850ZWI represent very well the intraseasonal variability (break and active periods) of the precipitation over WCB and the 850ZWI is also useful for identifying the onset dates. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society