Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors' preface
- Keynote address to the 1977 Symposium SIR JAMES LIGHTHILL
- Part I The large-scale climatology of the tropical atmosphere
- Part II The summer monsoon over the Indian subcontinent and East Africa
- 12 The monsoon as reflected in the behaviour of the tropical high-pressure belt
- 13 On the onset of the Indian southwest monsoon and the monsoon general circulation
- 14 Medium-range forecasting of monsoon rains
- 15 Sea-surface temperature and the monsoon
- 16 The effect of elevation on monsoon rainfall distribution in the central Himalayas
- 17 Use of the equation of continuity of water vapour for computation of average precipitation over peninsular India during the summer monsoon
- 18 Determination of cloud cluster properties from MONSOON-77 data
- 19 Analysis of superpressure balloon trajectories and conventional observations over the Indian Ocean during different phases of the 1975 southwest monsoon
- 20 An experiment in monitoring cross-equatorial airflow at low level over Kenya and rainfall of western India during the northern summers
- 21 Structure of the Somali Jet deduced from aerial observations taken during June–July, 1977
- 22 Certain aspects of monsoonal precipitation dynamics over Lake Victoria
- 23 A numerical model of the monsoon trough
- 24 On the monsoonal midtropospheric cyclogenesis over western India
- 25 Downstream development of baroclinic waves in the uppertropospheric monsoon easterlies suggested by a simple model experiment
- 26 The stability of the monsoon zonal flow with a superposed stationary monsoon wave
- 27 Growth of monsoon disturbances over western India
- 28 Topographic Rossby waves in the summer monsoon
- Part III The physics and dynamics of the Indian Ocean during the summer monsoon
- Part IV Some important mathematical modelling techniques
- Part V Storm surges and flood forecasting
- Index
15 - Sea-surface temperature and the monsoon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors' preface
- Keynote address to the 1977 Symposium SIR JAMES LIGHTHILL
- Part I The large-scale climatology of the tropical atmosphere
- Part II The summer monsoon over the Indian subcontinent and East Africa
- 12 The monsoon as reflected in the behaviour of the tropical high-pressure belt
- 13 On the onset of the Indian southwest monsoon and the monsoon general circulation
- 14 Medium-range forecasting of monsoon rains
- 15 Sea-surface temperature and the monsoon
- 16 The effect of elevation on monsoon rainfall distribution in the central Himalayas
- 17 Use of the equation of continuity of water vapour for computation of average precipitation over peninsular India during the summer monsoon
- 18 Determination of cloud cluster properties from MONSOON-77 data
- 19 Analysis of superpressure balloon trajectories and conventional observations over the Indian Ocean during different phases of the 1975 southwest monsoon
- 20 An experiment in monitoring cross-equatorial airflow at low level over Kenya and rainfall of western India during the northern summers
- 21 Structure of the Somali Jet deduced from aerial observations taken during June–July, 1977
- 22 Certain aspects of monsoonal precipitation dynamics over Lake Victoria
- 23 A numerical model of the monsoon trough
- 24 On the monsoonal midtropospheric cyclogenesis over western India
- 25 Downstream development of baroclinic waves in the uppertropospheric monsoon easterlies suggested by a simple model experiment
- 26 The stability of the monsoon zonal flow with a superposed stationary monsoon wave
- 27 Growth of monsoon disturbances over western India
- 28 Topographic Rossby waves in the summer monsoon
- Part III The physics and dynamics of the Indian Ocean during the summer monsoon
- Part IV Some important mathematical modelling techniques
- Part V Storm surges and flood forecasting
- Index
Summary
The first part of the chapter presents a brief review of the main large-scale ocean-atmosphere interaction mechanisms determining the sea-surface temperature (SST) in the tropics: the second part considers the use of SST anomalies in the Indian Ocean for predicting monsoon rainfall.
The International Indian Ocean Expedition provided evidence for the first time that variations of the SST over the Arabian Sea are far greater than are usually given in the normal charts. During the height of the summer monsoon, the SST in the Somali-Socotra area is sometimes as low as 14 °C; similarly, off the west coast of India between 15° N and 20° N the SST is occasionally as high as 31 °C.
Using monthly mean SST charts and weekly synoptic SST charts, a few occasions can be found when the SST showed marked anomalies. These were used for forecasting some of the features of the monsoon weather one to two weeks ahead, with significant success. If the data were available in real time (and not a week later), the same forecasts could be made for two to three weeks ahead.
Introduction
It is well known that the ultimate source of energy for all atmospheric motions is solar radiation incident on the Earth. The atmosphere receives most of the thermal energy for the maintenance of its large-scale circulation in the form of sensible heat and latent heat of water vapour.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Monsoon Dynamics , pp. 237 - 252Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1981
- 2
- Cited by