Role of Oceanic and Terrestrial Atmospheric Moisture Sources in Intraseasonal Variability of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall

Amey Pathak,Praveen Kumar,Raghu Murtugudde,Subimal Ghosh

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13115-7

Abstract

Summer Monsoon Rainfall over the Indian subcontinent displays a prominent variability at intraseasonal timescales with 10–60 day periods of high and low rainfall, known as active and break periods, respectively. Here, we study moisture transport from the oceanic and terrestrial sources to the Indian landmass at intraseasonal timescales using a dynamic recycling model, based on a Lagrangian trajectory approach applied to the ECMWF–ERA–interim reanalysis data. Intraseasonal variation of monsoon rainfall is associated with both a north-south pattern from the Indian landmass to the Indian Ocean and an east-west pattern from the Core Monsoon Zone (CMZ) to eastern India. We find that the oceanic sources of moisture, namely western and central Indian Oceans (WIO and CIO) contribute to the former, while the major terrestrial source, Ganga basin (GB) contributes to the latter. The formation of the monsoon trough over Indo-Gangetic plain during the active periods results in a high moisture transport from the Bay of Bengal and GB into the CMZ in addition to the existing southwesterly jet from WIO and CIO. Our results indicate the need for the correct representation of both oceanic and terrestrial sources of moisture in models for simulating the intraseasonal variability of the monsoon.

Highlights

These two dominant modes of intraseasonal variability, viz., 10–20 days and 30–60 days are stillevolving[13] and their contribution to the seasonal mean rainfall is debated[13]
The formation of the monsoon trough is associated with the TCZ migration[1] whilethe resulting fluctuations between the periods of high and low rainfall within the summer monsoon season essentially create a competition for rainfall between the Indian subcontinent and the tropical Indian Ocean[1]
The intraseasonal variation in the Indian summer monsoon is associated with the competition for moisture convergence among the three regions, i.e., the Core Monsoon Zone (CMZ), northeast India and the equatorial Indian Ocean [Fig. 1(d)].To investigate this interesting feature of ISMR, we study the atmospheric moisture transport from major evaporative sources [Fig. 1(c) and Supplementary Figure S3(b)] to the Indian monsoon region during active and break periods

Summary

Introduction

These two dominant modes of intraseasonal variability, viz., 10–20 days and 30–60 days are stillevolving[13] and their contribution to the seasonal mean rainfall is debated[13]. The intraseasonal variation in the Indian summer monsoon is associated with the competition for moisture convergence among the three regions, i.e., the CMZ (region1), northeast India (region2) and the equatorial Indian Ocean (region3) [Fig. 1(d)].To investigate this interesting feature of ISMR, we study the atmospheric moisture transport from major evaporative sources [Fig. 1(c) and Supplementary Figure S3(b)] to the Indian monsoon region during active and break periods.

Results

Conclusion