The cold pool of the Bay of Bengal and its association with the break phase of the Indian summer monsoon

During the summer monsoon season, strong coastal upwelling occurs along the southwest coast of India and at the southern tip of India, which cools the surface temperature of the waters around these regions. The summer monsoon current carries the upwelled cold waters into the Bay of Bengal and forms the ‘cold pool of the Bay of Bengal', with its core south of Sri Lanka and over the southcentral Bay of Bengal. The present study focuses on the intrusion of these cold waters into the south of the Bay of Bengal, its interannual variability, and its association with the surface wind during the break phase of the summer monsoon, when strong westerly surface winds flow south of 10°N.The authors hypothesize that the enhanced cooling in the cold pool region during monsoon spells is associated with the strong westerly wind stress there during the break spells of the monsoon.Seven cases of long break monsoon spells that occurred during the nine years from 2001 to 2009 are analyzed, and the results confirm our hypothesis.

Variability of Summer Monsoon Rainfall in India on Inter-Annual and Decadal Time Scales

Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall （ISMR） exhibits a prominent inter-annual variability known as troposphere biennial oscillation.A season of deficient June to September monsoon rainfall in India is followed by warm sea surface temperature （SST） anomalies over the tropical Indian Ocean and cold SST anomalies over the westem Pacific Ocean.These anomalies persist until the following monsoon,which yields normal or excessive rainfall.Monsoon rainfall in India has shown decadal variability in the form of 30 year epochs of alternately occurring frequent and infrequent drought monsoons since 1841,when rainfall measurements began in India.Decadal oscillations of monsoon rainfall and the well known decadal oscillations in SSTs of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have the same period of approximately 60 years and nearly the same temporal phase.In both of these variabilities,anomalies in monsoon heat source,such as deep convection,and middle latitude westerlies of the upper troposphere over south Asia have prominent roles.

Climate Change in the Subtropical Jetstream during 1950–2009

A study of six decades（1950–2009） of reanalysis data reveals that the subtropical jetstream（STJ） of the Southern（Northern） Hemisphere between longitudes 0°E and 180°E has weakened（strengthened） during both the boreal winter（January,February） and summer（July, August） seasons. The temperature of the upper troposphere of the midlatitudes has a warming trend in the Southern Hemisphere and a cooling trend in the Northern Hemisphere. Correspondingly, the north–south temperature gradient in the upper troposphere has a decreasing trend in the Southern Hemisphere and an increasing trend in the Northern Hemisphere, which affects the strength of the STJ through the thermal wind relation. We devised a method of isotach analysis in intervals of 0.1 m s-1in vertical sections of hemispheric mean winds to study the climate change in the STJ core wind speed, and also core height and latitude. We found that the upper tropospheric cooling of the Asian mid-latitudes has a role in the strengthening of the STJ over Asia, while throughout the rest of the globe the upper troposphere has a warming trend that weakens the STJ. Available studies show that the mid-latitude cooling of the upper troposphere over Asia is caused by anthropogenic aerosols（particularly sulphate aerosols） and the warming over the rest of the global mid-latitude upper troposphere is due to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.