Singular value decomposition analysis for examining the impact of Siberian High on winter precipitation variability over South Asia

Abstract

The relationship and linkage of Siberian High (SH) with winter climate over central Asia, East Asia, and Eurasia have been focused in the available literature. The effect of Siberian High over the South Asian region has received little attention. Thus, this article examines the possible teleconnection of SH pressure on winter precipitation variability over the region of South Asia. Moreover, the recent research studies focused on large-scale circulation phenomena: El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and regarded them as responsible for variability of winter rainfall. This paper gives the evidence that the winter rainfall variability is strongly influenced by Siberian High pressure. The effect of Siberian High pressure on winter precipitation over the South Asian region (65–76° E, 33–40° N) has been investigated using singular value decomposition analysis (SVDA) that is performed on gridded datasets of NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis and Climate Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia, UK. SVDA isolates the leading pairs of the coupled signals that mainly explain the relationship between the coupled fields. By employing SVDA, it is found that the Siberian High has dominant impact on precipitation variability during winter season over Northern areas of South Asia.