Characterization of southwest monsoon onset over Myanmar

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to characterize the southwest monsoon onset over Myanmar based on the model. The Regional Climate Model (RegCM3) was run for a period of 10 years (2000–2009) to simulate the meteorological fields which focused on April to July season. The model input data were obtained from the reanalyzed datasets of the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Grell scheme with Arakawa closure for cumulus parameterization assumption was used for simulation with 45 km horizontal resolution. The results revealed that southwest monsoon onset was confirmed when the prevailing wind direction up to 600 hPa level had shifted from northeasterly to westerly or southwesterly. The southwest monsoon first arrived at southernmost Kawthoung station of Myanmar and progressed through the Deltaic and Central parts until it reached at northernmost Putao station. Over the simulation periods, the southwest monsoon onset progressed from the southernmost to northernmost parts of the country in 19 ± 10 days. The position of Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) appeared (23°N–28°N) over the Northern part of the country before the onset. Furthermore, 500 hPa ridge appeared consistently over the Deltaic area of Myanmar from 6 to 10 days before the monsoon onset. Its position is about 6° to the south of the ITCZ.