The role of potential vorticity anomalies in the Somali Jet on Indian Summer Monsoon intraseasonal variability

Rai, Praveen, Joshi, Manoj ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2948-2811, Dimri, Ashok P. and Turner, Andrew G. (2018) The role of potential vorticity anomalies in the Somali Jet on Indian Summer Monsoon intraseasonal variability. Climate Dynamics, 50 (11-12). 4149–4169. ISSN 0930-7575

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Abstract

The climate of the Indian subcontinent is dominated by rainfall arising from the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) during June to September. Intraseasonal variability during the monsoon is characterized by periods of heavy rainfall interspersed by drier periods, known as active and break events respectively. Understanding and predicting such events is of vital importance for forecasting human impacts such as water resources. The Somali Jet is a key regional feature of the monsoon circulation. In the present study, we find that the spatial structure of Somali Jet potential vorticity (PV) anomalies varies considerably during active and break periods. Analysis of these anomalies shows a mechanism whereby sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies propagate north/northwestwards through the Arabian Sea, caused by a positive feedback loop joining anomalies in SST, convection, modification of PV by diabatic heating and mixing in the atmospheric boundary layer, wind-stress curl, and ocean upwelling processes. The feedback mechanism is consistent with observed variability in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system on timescales of approximately 20 days. This research suggests that better understanding and prediction of monsoon intraseasonal variability in the South Asian monsoon may be gained by analysis of the day-to-day dynamical evolution of PV in the Somali Jet.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	indian summer monsoon (ism),somali jet,potential vorticity,wind-stress curl,intraseasonal variability,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climatic Research Unit Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	25 Aug 2017 05:06
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2023 01:07
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/64658
DOI:	10.1007/s00382-017-3865-9

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