Teleconnection between the Indian summer monsoon onset and the Meiyu over the Yangtze River Valley

Abstract

Based on the Indian and Chinese precipitation data and the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis circulation data, the relationship between the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) onset and the Meiyu over the Yangtze River Valley has been discussed by the methods of correlation analysis and composite analysis. The results show that the date of ISM onset over Kerala in the southwestern coast of the Indian Peninsula is about two weeks earlier than the beginning of the Meiyu over the Yangtze River Valley. After the outbreak of ISM, the teleconnection mode sets up from the western coast of India via the Bay of Bengal (BOB) to the Yangtze River Valley and southern Japan. It is different both in time and space from the teleconnection mode which is from the northwest of India via the Tibetan Plateau to northern China. The former mode is defined as the “south” teleconnection of the Asian summer monsoon, forming in the period of ISM onset; while the latter mode is called the “north” teleconnection, mainly occurring in the Asian monsoon culminant period. During the process of the “south” teleconnection’s formation, the Asian monsoon circulation has experienced a series of important changes: ISM onset, the northward movement of the south Asia high (SAH), the onset vortex occurrence, the eastward extension of the stronger tropical westerly belt, and the northeastward jump of the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), etc. Consequently, since ISM sets up over Kerala, the whole Asian continent is covered by the upper SAH after about two weeks, while in the mid-and lower troposphere, a strong wind belt forms from the Arabian Sea via the southern India, BOB and the South China Sea (SCS), then along the western flank of WPSH, to the Yangtze River Valley and southern Japan. With the northward moving of the subtropical jet streams, the upper westerly jet stream and the low level jet have been coupled vertically over east Asia, while the Yangtze River Valley happens to locate in the ascending motion area between the upper jet stream and the low level jet, i.e. right of the entrance of the upper jet stream and left of the low level jet. Such a structure of the vertical circulation can trigger the Meiyu onset over the Yangtze River Valley.