Maritime Continent rainfall variability during the TRMM era: The role of monsoon, topography and El Niño Modoki

Abstract

Rainfall is among the most important climatic elements of the Maritime Continent. The Maritime Continent rainfall climate is uniquely located in the world’s most active convective area. Satellite data measured by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B43 based high-resolution rainfall products represent monthly Maritime Continent rainfall characteristics over 16 years. Several statistical scores were employed to analyse annual means, linear trends, seasonal means, and anomalous Maritime Continent rainfall characteristic percentages. The effects of land and topography on rainfall quantities were also studied and compared with the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) gridded precipitation estimates which has low-resolution. Comparison also applied on linear correlation and partial correlation techniques to determine the relationship between rainfall and the El Niño Modoki and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO; hereafter conventional El Niño). The results show that north-south Maritime Continent precipitation is associated with and generated by the northwest and southeast monsoon patterns. In addition, the large-scale circulations are linked with heavy rainfall over this land-ocean region due to large-scale island-topography-induced convective organization. The rainfall responses to El Niño Modoki and conventional El Niño clearly indicated the times at which the conventional El Niño had a higher impact than El Niño Modoki, especially during northern winter and spring, and vice versa during northern fall, and similarly affect during northern summer. Furthermore, the dynamic movements of rainfall anomaly that are caused by El Niño Modoki and the conventional El Niño events spanned from the southwest during June-July-August (JJA) to throughout the northeast ending in March-April-May (MAM).