The Indian Monsoon Circulation Response to El Niño Diabatic Heating

Youkyoung Jang Center for Ocean–Land–Atmosphere Studies, Calverton, Maryland

Search for other papers by Youkyoung Jang in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
and
David M. Straus Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, and Center for Ocean–Land–Atmosphere Studies, Calverton, Maryland

Search for other papers by David M. Straus in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Restricted access

We are aware of a technical issue preventing figures and tables from showing in some newly published articles in the full-text HTML view.
While we are resolving the problem, please use the online PDF version of these articles to view figures and tables.

Abstract

The response of the boreal summer mean tropical circulation to anomalies in diabatic heating during the strong El Niño events of 1972, 1987, and 1997 is studied, with particular focus on the Indian region. In experiments with the atmospheric general circulation model of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, anomalous diabatic heating fields are added to the full temperature tendency of the Community Atmosphere Model, version 3 (CAM3). The boundary conditions are specified climatological sea surface temperatures everywhere but over the Indian and western Pacific Oceans, where a slab-ocean model is used. The vertical structure of the added heating is idealized with a single maximum at 600 hPa. The added heating in the experiments was chosen on the basis of the 1972, 1987, and 1997 diabatic heating anomalies in the Pacific and Indian Oceans diagnosed from reanalyses. Integrations extended from May to August with 20 different initial conditions. The 1972 and 1987 experiments produced an anomalous anticyclonic circulation extending westward toward the Indian region, accompanied by negative total (added plus CAM3 produced) diabatic heating anomalies over India. A similar result was obtained for 1997 when only the Pacific Ocean diabatic heating was added. The heating over the central Pacific is shown to be more important than the western Pacific cooling. When the added heating also took into account anomalies over the Indian Ocean, the anomalous anticyclonic circulation weakens, while the total Indian heating anomaly is quite small. These results suggest the importance of the Indian Ocean heating for the 1997 monsoon circulation, but do not constitute a complete explanation since the Indian Ocean heating was given a priori.

Corresponding author address: Youkyoung Jang, Center for Ocean–Land–Atmosphere Studies, 4041 Powder Mill Rd., Suite 302, Calverton, MD 20705. E-mail: yjang@cola.iges.org

Abstract

The response of the boreal summer mean tropical circulation to anomalies in diabatic heating during the strong El Niño events of 1972, 1987, and 1997 is studied, with particular focus on the Indian region. In experiments with the atmospheric general circulation model of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, anomalous diabatic heating fields are added to the full temperature tendency of the Community Atmosphere Model, version 3 (CAM3). The boundary conditions are specified climatological sea surface temperatures everywhere but over the Indian and western Pacific Oceans, where a slab-ocean model is used. The vertical structure of the added heating is idealized with a single maximum at 600 hPa. The added heating in the experiments was chosen on the basis of the 1972, 1987, and 1997 diabatic heating anomalies in the Pacific and Indian Oceans diagnosed from reanalyses. Integrations extended from May to August with 20 different initial conditions. The 1972 and 1987 experiments produced an anomalous anticyclonic circulation extending westward toward the Indian region, accompanied by negative total (added plus CAM3 produced) diabatic heating anomalies over India. A similar result was obtained for 1997 when only the Pacific Ocean diabatic heating was added. The heating over the central Pacific is shown to be more important than the western Pacific cooling. When the added heating also took into account anomalies over the Indian Ocean, the anomalous anticyclonic circulation weakens, while the total Indian heating anomaly is quite small. These results suggest the importance of the Indian Ocean heating for the 1997 monsoon circulation, but do not constitute a complete explanation since the Indian Ocean heating was given a priori.

Corresponding author address: Youkyoung Jang, Center for Ocean–Land–Atmosphere Studies, 4041 Powder Mill Rd., Suite 302, Calverton, MD 20705. E-mail: yjang@cola.iges.org
Save
  • Annamalai, H., 2010: Moist dynamical linkage between the equatorial Indian Ocean and the South Asian monsoon trough. J. Atmos. Sci., 67, 589610.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Annamalai, H., and P. Liu, 2005: Response of the Asian monsoon to changes in El Niño properties. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 131, 805831.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Ashok, K., Z. Guan, N. H. Saji, and T. Yamagata, 2004: Individual and combined influences of ENSO and the Indian Ocean dipole on the Indian summer monsoon. J. Climate, 17, 31413155.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Chan, S. C., and S. Nigam, 2009: Residual diagnosis of diabatic heating from ERA-40 and NCEP reanalyses: Intercomparisons with TRMM. J. Climate, 22, 414428.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Charney, J. G., and J. Shukla, 1981: Predictability of monsoons. Monsoon Dynamics, J. Lighthill and R. P. Pearce, Eds., Cambridge University Press, 99–110.

  • Collins, W. D., and Coauthors, 2006: The formulation and atmospheric simulation of the Community Atmosphere Model version 3 (CAM3). J. Climate, 19, 21442161.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Fu, X., and B. Wang, 2002: Impacts of air–sea coupling on the simulation of mean Asian summer monsoon in the ECHAM4 model. Mon. Wea. Rev., 130, 28892904.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Gadgil, S., P. N. Vinayachandra, P. A. Francis, and S. Gadgil, 2004: Extremes of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, ENSO and equatorial Indian Ocean oscillation. Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L12213, doi:10.1029/2004GL019733.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Gill, A. E., 1980: Some simple solutions for heat-induced tropical circulation. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 106, 447462.

  • Jin, F., and B. J. Hoskins, 1995: The direct response to tropical heating a baroclinic atmosphere. J. Atmos. Sci., 52, 307319.

  • Ju, J., and J. M. Slingo, 1995: The Asian summer monsoon and ENSO. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 121, 11331168.

  • Kirtman, B. P., and J. Shukla, 2000: Influence of the Indian summer monsoon on ENSO. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 126, 213239.

  • Kripalani, R. H., and A. Kulkarni, 1997: Climate impacts of El Niño/La Niña on the Indian monsoon: A new perspective. Weather, 52, 3946.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Krishnamurthy, V., and J. Shukla, 2000: Intraseaonal and interannual variability of rainfall over India. J. Climate, 13, 43664377.

  • Kucharski, F., A. Baracco, J. H. Yoo, and F. Molteni, 2007: Low-frequency variability of the Indian monsoon–ENSO relationship and the tropical Atlantic: The “weakening” of the 1980s and 1990s. J. Climate, 20, 42554266.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Kumar, K. K., B. Rajagopalan, and M. A. Cane, 1999: On the weakening relationship between the Indian monsoon and ENSO. Science, 284, 21562159.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Lau, N. C., and M. J. Nath, 1994: A modeling study of the relative roles of tropical and extratropical SST anomalies in the variability of the global atmosphere–ocean system. J. Climate, 7, 11841207.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Lau, N. C., and M. J. Nath, 2000: Impact of ENSO on the variability of the Asian–Australian monsoons as simulated in GCM experiments. J. Climate, 13, 42874309.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Lau, N. C., and M. J. Nath, 2003: Atmosphere–ocean variations in the Indo-Pacific sector during ENSO episodes. J. Climate, 16, 320.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Lin, H., 2009: Global extratropical response to diabatic heating variability of the Asian summer monsoon. J. Atmos. Sci., 66, 26972713.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Meehl, G. A., J. M. Arblaster, and G. Branstator, 2008: A coupled air–sea response mechanism to solar forcing in the Pacific region. J. Climate, 21, 28832897.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Nigam, S., C. Chung, and E. DeWeaver, 2000: ENSO diabatic heating in ECMWF and NCEP reanalyses, and NCAR CCM3 simulation. J. Climate, 13, 31523171.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Palmer, T. N., C. Brankovic, P. Viterbo, and M. J. Miller, 1992: Modeling interannual variations of summer monsoons. J. Climate, 5, 399417.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Pillai, P. A., and H. Annamalai, 2012: Moist dynamics of severe monsoons over South Asia: Role of the tropical SST. J. Atmos. Sci., 69, 97115.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Reynolds, R. W., N. A. Rayner, T. M. Smith, D. C. Stokes, and W. Wang, 2002: An improved in situ and satellite SST analysis for climate. J. Climate, 15, 16091625.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Sahai, A. K., A. M. Grimm, V. Satyan, and G. B. Pant, 2003: Long-lead prediction of Indian summer monsoon rainfall from global SST evolution. Climate Dyn., 20, 855863.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Shukla, J., and D. A. Paolino, 1983: The Southern Oscillation and long-range forecasting of the summer monsoon rainfall over India. Mon. Wea. Rev., 111, 18301837.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Slingo, J. M., and H. Annamalai, 2000: 1997: The El Niño of the century and the response of the Indian summer monsoon. Mon. Wea. Rev., 128, 17781797.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Straus, M. D., and V. Krishnamurthy, 2007: The preferred structure of the interannual Indian monsoon variability. Pure Appl. Geophys., 164, 17171732.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Su, H., J. D. Neelin, and C. Chou, 2001: Tropical teleconnection and local response to SST anomalies during 1997–1998 El Niño. J. Geophys. Res., 106 (D17), 20 02520 044.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Wang, B., R. Wu, and X. Fu, 2000: Pacific–East Asian teleconnection: How does ENSO affect East Asian climate? J. Climate, 13, 15171536.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Wang, B., R. Wu, and T. Li, 2003: Atmosphere–warm ocean interaction and its impacts on Asian–Australian monsoon variation. J. Climate, 16, 11951211.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Wang, B., Q. Ding, X. Fu, I.-S. Kang, K. Jin, and J. Shukla, 2005: Fundamental challenge in simulation and prediction of summer monsoon rainfall. Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L15711, doi:10.1029/2005GL022734.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Watanabe, M., and F. Jin, 2003: A moist linear baroclinic model: Coupled dynamical–convective response to El Niño. J. Climate, 16, 11211139.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Wu, R., and B. Kirtman, 2005: Roles of Indian and Pacific Ocean air-sea coupling in tropical atmospheric variability. Climate Dyn., 25, 155170.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Xie, P., and P. A. Arkin, 1997: Global precipitation: A 17-year monthly analysis based on gauge observations, satellite estimates, and numerical model outputs. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 25392558.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 0 0 0
Full Text Views 523 228 53
PDF Downloads 256 52 4