Monsoon Dynamics

This volume presents a survey of our state of knowledge of the physical and dynamical processes involved in the Asian monsoon. Although traditionally the main emphasis has been on the study of the atmospheric component, it has long been known that the oceans play a vitally important part in determining the occurrence of this spectacular seasonal event. A scientific study of this phenomenon involves a detailed investigation of the dynamical processes which occur in both the atmosphere and the ocean, on timescales on up to at least a year and on spatial scales from a few hundred kilometres or so up to that of the global atmospheric and oceanic circulations. The editors present a coherent survey of each of the meteorological, oceanographic and hydrological aspects and of their implications for weather forecasting and flood prediction. Monsoon Dynamics is a timely survey of a dramatic meteorological phenomenon which will interest meteorologists, climatologists and geophysicists.

Table of Contents:
Part I. The large-scale climatology of the tropical atmosphere: Introduction; 1. Teleconnections of rainfall anomalies in the tropics and subtropics; 2. Northern summer planetary-scale monsoons during drought and normal rainfall months; 3. The annual oscillation of the trophospheric temperature in the northern hemisphere; 4. Summer mean energetics for standing and transcient eddies in the wavenumber domain; 5. Monitoring the monsoon outflow from geosynchronous satellite data; 6. Predictability of monsoon; 7. A review of general-circulation model experiments in the Indian monsoon; 8. Simulation of the Asian summer monsoon by an 11-layer general-circulation model; 9. Analysis of monsoonal quasi-stationary systems as revealed in a real-data prediction experiment; 10. A model of the seasonally varying planetary-scale monsoon; 11. Wave interactions in the equatorial atmosphere - an analytical study; Part II. The summer monsoon over the Indian subcontinent and East Africa: 12. The monsoon as reflected in the behaviour of the tropical high-pressure belt; 13. On the onset of the Indian southwest monsoon and the monsoon general circulation; 14. Medium-range forecasting of monsoon rains; 15. Sea-surface temperature and the monsoon; 16. The effect of elevation on monsoon rainfall distribution in the central Himalayas; 17. Use of the equation of continuity of water vapour for computation of average precipitation over peninsular India during the summer monsoon; 18. Determination of cloud cluster properties from MONSOON77 data; 19. Analysis of superpressure balloon trajectories and conventional observations over the Indian Ocean during different phases of the 1975 southwest monsoon; 20. An experiment in monitoring cross-equatorial airflow at low level over Kenya and rainfall of western India during the northern summers; 21. Structure of the Somali Jet deducted from aerial observations taken during June-July 1977; 22. Certain aspects of monsoonal precipitation dynamics over Lake Victoria; 23. A numerical model of the monsoon trough; 24. On the monsoonal midtropospheric cyclogenesis over western India; 25. Downstream development of baroclinic waves in the upper-tropospheric monsoon easterlies suggested by a simple model experiment; 26. The stability of the monsoon zonal flow with a superposed stationary monsoon wave; 27. Growth of monsoon disturbances over western India; 28. Topographic Rossby waves in the summer monsoon; Part III. The physics and dynamics of the Indian Ocean during the summer monsoon: 29. Observations of the Somali Current and its relationship to the monsoon winds; 30. Structure of currents and hydrographic conditions in the western equatorial Indian Ocean during the summer monsoon; 31. Recent observations in the equatorial Indian Ocean; 32. Sea temperature variations in the northeastern Arabian Sea in relation to the southwest monsoon; 33. Heat budget of the north Indian oceanic surface during MONSOON77; 34. The energy budget at selected stations over the north Indian Ocean during MONSOON77; 35. Observations of coastal-water upwelling around India; 36. A numerical study of surface cooling processes during summer in the Arabian Sea; 37. Maximum simplification of nonlinear Somali Current dynamics; Part IV. Some important mathematical modelling techniques: 39. On the incorporation of orography into numerical prediction models; 40. Vertical motion in the monsoon circulation; 41. A one-dimensional model of the planetary boundary layer for monsoon studies; 42. The use of empirical orthogonal functions for rainfall estimates; 43. Applications of perturbation theory to problems of simulation of atmospheric processes; Part V. Storm surges and flood forecasting: 44. Storm-surge prediction using numerical models; 45. Numerical simulation of storm surges in the Bay of Bengal; 46. Flood stage forecasting in rivers; Index.