The monsoon circulation of the Indian Ocean

doi:10.1016/S0079-6611(01)00083-0

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The monsoon circulation of the Indian Ocean

Journal Article•DOI•

The monsoon circulation of the Indian Ocean

Friedrich Schott¹, Julian P. McCreary²•Institutions (2)

University of Kiel¹, University of Hawaii²

01 Jan 2001-Progress in Oceanography (Elsevier)-Vol. 51, Iss: 1, pp 1-123

TL;DR: In this article, the authors review observations, theory and model results on the monsoon circulation of the Indian Ocean and discuss possible physical mechanisms behind seasonal variability of the meridional overturning streamfunction and heat flux.

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About: This article is published in Progress in Oceanography.The article was published on 2001-01-01. It has received 1437 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Monsoon & Ocean current.

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Journal Article•DOI•

Indian Ocean circulation and climate variability

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Friedrich Schott¹, Shang-Ping Xie², Julian P. McCreary²•Institutions (2)

University of Kiel¹, University of Hawaii²

01 Mar 2009-Reviews of Geophysics

TL;DR: The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events are often triggered by ENSO but can also occur independently, subject to eastern tropical preconditioning as mentioned in this paper, and the Indian Ocean has been discovered to have a much larger impact on climate variability than previously thought.

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Abstract: In recent years, the Indian Ocean (IO) has been discovered to have a much larger impact on climate variability than previously thought This paper reviews climate phenomena and processes in which the IO is, or appears to be, actively involved We begin with an update of the IO mean circulation and monsoon system It is followed by reviews of ocean/atmosphere phenomenon at intraseasonal, interannual, and longer time scales Much of our review addresses the two important types of interannual variability in the IO, El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the recently identified Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) IOD events are often triggered by ENSO but can also occur independently, subject to eastern tropical preconditioning Over the past decades, IO sea surface temperatures and heat content have been increasing, and model studies suggest significant roles of decadal trends in both the Walker circulation and the Southern Annular Mode Prediction of IO climate variability is still at the experimental stage, with varied success Essential requirements for better predictions are improved models and enhanced observations

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1,144 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Structure and Mechanisms of South Indian Ocean Climate Variability

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Shang-Ping Xie¹, H. Annamalai¹, Friedrich Schott², Julian P. McCreary¹•Institutions (2)

University of Hawaii at Manoa¹, University of Kiel²

15 Apr 2002-Journal of Climate

TL;DR: In this paper, in situ measurements and a model-assimilated dataset reveals a strong influence of subsurface thermocline variability on sea surface temperature (SST) in this upwelling zone.

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Abstract: A unique open-ocean upwelling exists in the tropical South Indian Ocean (SIO), a result of the negative wind curl between the southeasterly trades and equatorial westerlies, raising the thermocline in the west. Analysis of in situ measurements and a model-assimilated dataset reveals a strong influence of subsurface thermocline variability on sea surface temperature (SST) in this upwelling zone. El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is found to be the dominant forcing for the SIO thermocline variability, with SST variability off Sumatra, Indonesia, also making a significant contribution. When either an El Nino or Sumatra cooling event takes place, anomalous easterlies appear in the equatorial Indian Ocean, forcing a westward-propagating downwelling Rossby wave in the SIO. In phase with this dynamic Rossby wave, there is a pronounced copropagation of SST. Moreover, a positive precipitation anomaly is found over, or just to the south of, the Rossby wave-induced positive SST anomaly, resulting in a cyclonic circulation in the surface wind field that appears to feedback onto the SST anomaly. Finally, this downwelling Rossby wave also increases tropical cyclone activity in the SIO through its SST effect. This coupled Rossby wave thus offers potential predictability for SST and tropical cyclones in the western SIO. These results suggest that models that allow for the existence of upwelling and Rossby wave dynamics will have better seasonal forecasts than ones that use a slab ocean mixed layer. The lagged-correlation analysis shows that SST anomalies off Java, Indonesia, tend to precede those off Sumatra by a season, a time lead that may further increase the Indian Ocean predictability.

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739 citations

Cites background from "The monsoon circulation of the Indi..."

...To the lowest order, the wind curl is zonally uniform, which drives a cyclonic equatorial gyre with the thermocline shoaling westward (e.g., Schott and McCreary 2001)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

The monsoon currents in the north Indian Ocean

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D. Shankar¹, P. N. Vinayachandran², A. S. Unnikrishnan¹•Institutions (2)

National Institute of Oceanography, India¹, Indian Institute of Science²

01 Jan 2002-Progress in Oceanography

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used an Oceanic General Circulation Model (OGCM) to simulate these currents and estimate their transports, and a 11/2-layer reduced-gravity model to investigate the processes that force them.

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655 citations

Cites background from "The monsoon circulation of the Indi..."

...May and October–November (see, for example, Wyrtki, 1973a; O’Brien & Hurlburt, 1974; Reverdin, 1987; Jensen, 1993; Han, McCreary, Anderson, & Mariano, 1999; Schott & McCreary, 2001, and the many references therein)....
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...…flows poleward (equatorward) along the coast of Somalia during the summer (winter) monsoon (see the reviews by Schott, 1983; Shetye & Gouveia, 1998; Schott & McCreary, 2001, and the many references therein), and the current along the equator (called the Equatorial Current in this paper), where…...
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...The monsoon currents are shallow, unlike the deep currents observed off Somalia during the summer monsoon (Schott & McCreary, 2001)....
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...…McCreary, Kundu, & Molinari, 1993; McCreary, Han, Shankar, & Shetye,1996; Vinayachandran, Shetye, Sengupta, & Gadgil, 1996; Shetye & Gouveia, 1998; Schott & McCreary, 2001), the current along the west coast of India, called the West India Coastal Current (WICC) (Shetye et al., 1990; Shetye,…...
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...…Stramma, Fischer, & Schott, 1996; Shankar & Shetye, 1997; Shetye & Gouveia, 1998), and the current along the Arabian-Sea coast of Oman (McCreary et al., 1993; Shetye & Gouveia, 1998; Böhm, Morrison, Manghnani, Kim, & Flagg, 1999; Shi, Morrison, Böhm, & Manghnani, 2000; Schott & McCreary, 2001)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Madden–Julian Oscillation: Bridging Weather and Climate

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Chidong Zhang¹•Institutions (1)

University of Miami¹

01 Dec 2013-Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

TL;DR: The Madden-Julian oscillation exerts broad influences on global weather and climate as its center of convection moves from the tropical Indian Ocean into the Pacific. as mentioned in this paper provides a brief summary of the connections between the Madden and climate phenomena.

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Abstract: The Madden–Julian oscillation exerts broad influences on global weather and climate as its center of convection moves from the tropical Indian Ocean into the Pacific. Weather events under the influence of the MJO include precipitation, surface temperature, tropical cyclones, tornadoes, flood, wildfire, and lightning, among others. Several climate phenomena are also affected by the MJO. They are the monsoons, El Nino–Southern Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Pacific and North American pattern, the Arctic and Antarctic Oscillations or northern and southern annual modes, the Indian Ocean dipole, the Wyrtki jets, and the Indonesian Through-flow. This article provides a brief summary of the connections between the MJO and these weather and climate phenomena. These connections demonstrate the critical role of the MJO in the weather–climate continuum and its prediction.

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589 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

RAMA: The Research Moored Array for African–Asian–Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction*

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Michael J. McPhaden¹, Gary Meyers, Kentaro Ando, Yukio Masumoto, V. S. N. Murty, M. Ravichandran, F. Syamsudin, Jérôme Vialard, L. Yu, Weidong Yu - Show less +6 more•Institutions (1)

Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory¹

01 Apr 2009-Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

TL;DR: The Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) as discussed by the authors is a new observational network designed to address outstanding scientific questions related to Indian Ocean variability and the monsoons.

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Abstract: The Indian Ocean is unique among the three tropical ocean basins in that it is blocked at 25°N by the Asian landmass. Seasonal heating and cooling of the land sets the stage for dramatic monsoon wind reversals, strong ocean–atmosphere interactions, and intense seasonal rains over the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Australia. Recurrence of these monsoon rains is critical to agricultural production that supports a third of the world's population. The Indian Ocean also remotely influences the evolution of El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), North American weather, and hurricane activity. Despite its importance in the regional and global climate system though, the Indian Ocean is the most poorly observed and least well understood of the three tropical oceans. This article describes the Research Moored Array for African–Asian–Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA), a new observational network designed to address outstanding scientific questions related to Indian Ocean variability and the monsoons. RAMA is a multinationally supported element of the Indian Ocean Observing System (IndOOS), a combination of complementary satellite and in situ measurement platforms for climate research and forecasting. The article discusses the scientific rationale, design criteria, and implementation of the array. Initial RAMA data are presented to illustrate how they contribute to improved documentation and understanding of phenomena in the region. Applications of the data for societal benefit are also described.

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506 citations

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Journal Article•DOI•

A Dipole Mode in the Tropical Indian Ocean

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N. H. Saji, Bhupendra Nath Goswami¹, P. N. Vinayachandran, Toshio Yamagata²•Institutions (2)

Indian Institute of Science¹, University of Tokyo²

23 Sep 1999-Nature

TL;DR: An analysis of observational data over the past 40 years shows a dipole mode in the Indian Ocean: a pattern of internal variability with anomalously low sea surface temperatures off Sumatra and high seasurface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean, with accompanying wind and precipitation anomalies.

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Abstract: For the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans, internal modes of variability that lead to climatic oscillations have been recognized1,2, but in the Indian Ocean region a similar ocean–atmosphere interaction causing interannual climate variability has not yet been found3. Here we report an analysis of observational data over the past 40 years, showing a dipole mode in the Indian Ocean: a pattern of internal variability with anomalously low sea surface temperatures off Sumatra and high sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean, with accompanying wind and precipitation anomalies. The spatio-temporal links between sea surface temperatures and winds reveal a strong coupling through the precipitation field and ocean dynamics. This air–sea interaction process is unique and inherent in the Indian Ocean, and is shown to be independent of the El Nino/Southern Oscillation. The discovery of this dipole mode that accounts for about 12% of the sea surface temperature variability in the Indian Ocean—and, in its active years, also causes severe rainfall in eastern Africa and droughts in Indonesia—brightens the prospects for a long-term forecast of rainfall anomalies in the affected countries.

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4,385 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Atmospheric teleconnections from the equatorial pacific1

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J. Bjerknes¹•Institutions (1)

University of California, Los Angeles¹

01 Mar 1969-Monthly Weather Review

TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the strong response of the northeast Pacific westerlies to big positive anomalies of equatorial sea temperature, observed in the winter of 1957-58, has been found to repeat during the major equatorial Sea temperature maxima in the winters of 1963-64 and 1965-66.

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Abstract: The “high index” response of the northeast Pacific westerlies to big positive anomalies of equatorial sea temperature, observed in the winter of 1957–58, has been found to repeat during the major equatorial sea temperature maxima in the winters of 1963–64 and 1965–66. The 1963 positive temperature anomaly started early enough to exert the analogous effect on the atmosphere of the south Indian Ocean during its winter season. The maxima of the sea temperature in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific occur as a result of anomalous weakening of the trade winds of the Southern Hemisphere with inherent weakening of the equatorial upwelling. These anomalies are shown to be closely tied to the “Southern Oscillation” of Sir Gilbert Walker.

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3,239 citations

"The monsoon circulation of the Indi..." refers background in this paper

...This sequence of events leads to intensified eastern cooling, and provides a positive-feedback loop similar to the one proposed by Bjerknes (1969) to explain El Niño....
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...This sequence of events leads to intensified eastern cooling, and provides a positive-feedback loop similar to the one proposed by Bjerknes (1969) to explain El Niño. A scenario of the coupled event in terms of internal ocean dynamics has been given by Webster et al. (1999) as follows (Fig....
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...This sequence of events leads to intensified eastern cooling, and provides a positive-feedback loop similar to the one proposed by Bjerknes (1969) to explain El Niño. A scenario of the coupled event in terms of internal ocean dynamics has been given by Webster et al. (1999) as follows (Fig. 72). Following the anomalous SST gradient along the equator of summer 1997, strong convection developed over East Africa in the fall of 1997 (Fig. 72b). This anomaly drove westward wind anomalies along the equator, and in conjunction with the weakening of the trades (Fig. 72b) a large Ekman-convergence anomaly developed south of the equator (Fig. 72c). Rossby waves were excited by this convergence and propagated westward. They deepened the thermocline at the western end, continued the warming in the interior ocean, thus sustaining the anomalous westward winds. This sequence of events, however, was not as clear for the 1993/94 event: Although anomalous Ekman convergence existed south of the equator from July to December, 1994, the arrival of a Rossby-wave signal at the western boundary was not at all obvious (Fig. 71a–c). ‘Dipole’ events end abruptly in the following spring, apparently overwhelmed by the strong monsoonal forcing during the summer. It is noteworthy that they do not reappear in the following year, possibly associated with the weakening of El Niño (at least for the 1993/4 and 1997/8 cases), which allows the Pacific convection regime to move back toward Indonesia (Fig. 72d). It may also be associated with the TBO (Yasunari, 1989; Meehl, 1997). The debate is still continuing as to whether this Indian-Ocean mode is internally generated or externally forced. One has to note that both the events in the Indian Ocean coincided with Pacific El Niños; it is not clear whether the 1961 event, for which observations were much sparser, really was similar to these recent ones. On the other hand, the EOF analysis of Meyers (1996, see Section 7.3) yielded a different pattern of SST, thermocline depth and dynamic height in the eastern Indian Ocean for the 1994 anomaly (EOF2) than for ENSO related variability (EOF1) supports the recent coupled model study of Iizuka, Matsuura, and Yamagata (2000) that concluded that the mode is unique to the Indian Ocean....
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Climatological atlas of the world ocean

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Sydney Levitus¹•Institutions (1)

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory¹

01 Jan 1982

TL;DR: A project to objectively analyze historical ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen, and percent oxygen saturation data for the world ocean has recently been completed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey.

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Abstract: A project to objectively analyze historical ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen, and percent oxygen saturation data for the world ocean has recently been completed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey. The results of the project are being made available through distribution of the Climatological Atlas of the World Ocean (NOAA Professional Paper No. 13), and through distribution of magnetic tapes containing the objective analyses. The sources of data used in the project were the Station Data, Mechanical Bathythermograph, and Expendable Bathythermograph files of the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) in Washington, D.C., updated through 1977–1978. The raw data were subjected to quality control procedures, averaged by one-degree squares, and then used as input to an objective analysis procedure that fills in one-degree squares containing no data and smooths the results. Due to the lack of synoptic observations for the world ocean, the historical data are composited by annual, seasonal, and (for temperature) monthly periods.

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3,029 citations

Book•

Climatological Atlas of the World Ocean

[...]

Sydney Levitus¹•Institutions (1)

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory¹

01 Jun 1982

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2,929 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Description of Global-Scale Circulation Cells in the Tropics with a 40–50 Day Period

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Roland A. Madden¹, Paul R. Julian¹•Institutions (1)

National Center for Atmospheric Research¹

01 Sep 1972-Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

TL;DR: In this article, a long time series (5-10 years) of station pressure and upper air data from stations located in the tropics are subjected to spectral and cross-spectral analysis to investigate the spatial extent of a previously detected oscillation in various variables with a period range of 40-50 days.

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Abstract: Long time series (5–10 years) of station pressure and upper air data from stations located in the tropics are subjected to spectral and cross-spectral analysis to investigate the spatial extent of a previously detected oscillation in various variables with a period range of 40–50 days. In addition, time series of station pressure from two tropical stations for the 1890's are examined and indicate that the oscillation is a stationary feature. The cross-spectral analysis suggests that the oscillation is of global scale but restricted to the tropics: it possesses features of an eastward-moving wave whose characteristics change with time. A mean wave disturbance, constructed with data from the IGY, provides additional descriptive material on the spatial and temporal behavior of the oscillation. The manifestation in station pressure consists of anomalies which appear between 10N and 10S in the Indian Ocean region and propagate eastward to the Eastern Pacific. Zonal winds participate in the oscillation...

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2,551 citations

"The monsoon circulation of the Indi..." refers background or methods in this paper

...An interesting result of the Lee and Marotzke (1998) study was that the annual-mean heat flux was changed little if the model was forced by annual-mean winds and fluxes rather than by seasonally varying ones, implying that rectification of seasonal meridional variability is not an important factor. As mentioned in Section 7, Wajsowicz and Schneider (2001) discussed the influence of the Indonesian Throughflow on the mean heat budget of their numerical solution....
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...Deep jets: Luyten and Swallow (1976) were the first to draw attention to the fact that the deep flow along the equator is remarkably complex....
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...In an effort to explain the Luyten and Swallow (1976) observation of deep jets, Wunsch (1977) obtained solutions to a linear, continuously stratified model....
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...An interesting result of the Lee and Marotzke (1998) study was that the annual-mean heat flux was changed little if the model was forced by annual-mean winds and fluxes rather than by seasonally varying ones, implying that rectification of seasonal meridional variability is not an important factor....
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