Open AccessEvaluation of dynamical and thermal anomalies associated with the summer monsoon of 1997 and 1999
Author(s) -
S. K. Roy Bhowmik
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
mausam
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.243
H-Index - 12
ISSN - 0252-9416
DOI - 10.54302/mausam.v54i4.1579
Subject(s) - climatology , la niña , anomaly (physics) , plateau (mathematics) , monsoon , geology , geopotential height , troposphere , atmospheric circulation , geography , precipitation , el niño southern oscillation , meteorology , physics , mathematics , condensed matter physics , mathematical analysis
The year 1997 was characterized by rapid development of a strong El Nino event and during 1999, a La Nina episode prevailed. The response of all India monsoon rainfall to these events in 1997 (above normal rainfall; >100%) and 1999 (below normal rainfall; <100%) was of unusual nature. In this paper, the reasons for this have been investigated in terms of planetary scale dynamical and thermal anomaly indices. The major findings of this study are (a) The early onset of south west monsoon in 1999 was associated with the stronger positive vertical shear of zonal anomaly over the north Indian Ocean, (b) Development of an active inverse Hadley circulation over Indian longitude appears to play an important role to reactivate monsoon during August and September in 1997, (c) Positive anomalies of tropospheric temperature occupied larger area over the Tibetan Plateau in May 1999, (d) The geopotential height anomaly at 200 hPa over the Tibetan Plateau during the month of May in 1999, in the year of early onset, was considerably higher compared to 1997 and (e) The dominance of negative anomalies of mean sea level pressure during May in 1999 over Indian region reflected the La Nina influence.