On the relationship between east equatorial Atlantic SST and ISM through Eurasian wave

Abstract

The dominant mode of July–August (JA) seasonal variability of Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) are obtained by performing empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The first dominant mode of ISMR and its relationships with the sea surface temperature (SST), pressure level wind and geopotential height (GPH) fields are examined using gridded datasets for the period 1979–2014. The principal component of the first leading mode (PC1) obtained in the EOF analysis of JA rainfall over Indian landmass is highly correlated with north-west and central India rainfall, and anti-correlated with east-equatorial Atlantic SST (EEASST). The positive EEASST anomaly intensifies the inter-tropical convergence zone over Atlantic and west equatorial Africa which generates stationary wave meridionally, as meridional transfer of energy is strong, as the influence of background jet-streams are minimal over North Africa and Europe. The anomalous positive and negative GPH are generated over sub-tropics and extra-tropics, respectively, due to the stationary wave. This increases the climatological background steep pressure gradient between sub-tropics and extra-tropics consisting of anomalous negative GPH field over north-west (NW) Europe and vice versa for negative EEASST anomaly. The anomalous positive GPH over NW Europe acts as center of action for the propagation of a Rossby wave train to NW India via Europe consisting of anomalous high over NW of India. This intensifies the Tibetan High westward which reinforces the outbreak of monsoon activities over central and NW India.