Tropical Climatology

Compiled by: Akhmad Faqih, PhD.

Department of Geophysics and Meteorology

Bogor Agricultural University
2011
Introduction
 Monsoon  arabic word “mausim”
 The main characteristics of the monsoon regions:
 The prevailing wind direction shifts by at least 120° between
January and July;
 The average frequency of prevailing directions in January and
July exceeds 40%
 The mean resultant winds in at least one of the months
exceeds 3 ms-1, and less than one cyclone anticyclone
alteration occurs on average every two years in any one month
in a 5° latitude-longitude rectangle (Ramage 1971).
 Monsoon areas are important in terms of their
geographical coverage and demographic that cover more
than 50% world’s population.
3 mechanisms cause the Monsoon
(Webster 1987):

 The differential seasonal heating of the oceans and continents;

 The importance of seasonal temperature and pressure changes
 Seasonal contrasts in land surface temperatures produce
atmospheric pressure changes which produce reversals of the
pressure gradient force, the basic driving force of the winds  there
are major wind reversals.

 Moisture processes in the atmosphere;

 A moist warm air rises during summertime heated land surface 
condenses & releasing energy  latent heat of condensation.
 Add to the strength of the monsoon

 The earth’s rotation.

 Earth’s rotation  the Coriolis force  causes wind to change
direction as they cross the equator  Monsoon current moves in
curved paths.
 The annual
monsoon cycle
 In transitional months
 ITCZ in the equator  maximum surface
heating
 The northern hemisphere tropical-
subtropical latitudes are beginning to
warm up
 Vertical motion is present, but weak
 The northern hemisphere Hadley cell  September
and offshore winds still predominates
 Surface heating has decreased
 May to June with maximum insolation
 the heating of northern tropical land positioned close to the position
masses and vertical motions intensifies in April  the structure is very
 Onshore wind is predominant similar to that of April
 ITCZ has moved well north of the  A stopping of the northern
equator
hemisphere monsoon wet season
 June to July and the onset of dry season.
 Sensible heat input at the surface, the
vertical motion and atmospheric  December
moisture over the northern hemisphere  The southern hemisphere wet
tropical land masses are close to season is developing , and the
maximum ITCZ has moved south of the
 Pressure gradient force and the monsoon equator
reach maximum intensity
Monsoons variability
 There is significant variability in the onset, duration and magnitude of
the monsoons
 There are two mechanisms responsible for monsoon interannual
variability (Sukla 1987):
1. Internal Dynamics
A variety of aperiodic variations in the atmospheric circulation  e.g. travelling
disturbances, thermal and orographic forcing, non-linear associations between
different scale of atmospheric motion and tropical-extratropical interactions
constitutesome of the internal dynamic controls on the monsoon (Shukla 1987)
2. Boundary Forcing
Change in surface conditions  the extension of snow cover, surface hydrological
effects and sea surface temperature
Change in boundary conditions affect geographical distribution of heat and
moisture source and sinks in the atmosphere
 Both mechanisms interact to produce variations in the monsoos
 Various monsoon systems experience intra-seasonal variations in the
form of active and break phases  Rainfall and no rainfall conditions
between one to the next period
Regional Monsoon System

 Traditionally, only three main monsoon system have

been recognized: African, Asian and Australian
Monsoon.
 Due to more data available, more monsoon systems
are recognized:
 The Indian Monsoon
 The East Asian Monsoon } Asian Monsoon
 The Australian Monsoon
 The African Monsoon
 Eastern North Pacific Monsoon
The Indian Monsoon
 Is made up of a number of components:
1. The monsoon through the northern India
2. The Mascarene anticyclonic system
3. The low level cross-equatorial jet
4. The Tibetan high pressure system
5. The tropical easterly jet
6. Monsoon cloudiness
7. Rainfall (Krishnamurti and Bhalme 1976)
The East Asian Monsoon
 It is not a simply an eastward extension of the Indian Monsoon,
but a separate component of the large Asian monsoon system.
 Facts to this conclusion include:
 the frequent opposite behavior of monsoon activity over East Asia
and India,
 the existence of heat source and sink regions over the South China
Sea and Australian region,
 intra-seasonal changes in the origins of the air masses involved in
the respective monsoons, and
 contrast in onset and cessation times of the two monsoons
 Unique characteristic: the East Asian monsoon has a very strong
cold winter signature , which is not possessed by any other
monsoon systems.
East Asian Summer Monsoon
 Can be divided into eight major components:
1. The Australian High
2. The cross-equatorial jet at about 110°E
3. The monsoon through
4. zones of convection
5. Tropical easterly jet, part of the upper level north-
easterly return flow
6. The western Pacific high
7. The Mei-Yu Front
8. Mid-latitude disturbance
East Asian Winter Monsoon
 The associated high pressure centre reaches a great
intensity at latitudes of about 40°-60° over Mongolia
and middle Siberia.
 Air moves out from the anticyclonic centre over those
regions in a southerly direction over Korea, China,
Japan, Indo-China and the western Pacific.
 Over the South China Sea, at about 15-20°, the
northerly airflow converges with the north-easterlies
from the Pacific
The Australian Monsoon
 A southern hemisphere extension of the larger Asian
winter monsoon system
The African Monsoon
 The circulations differ from the Indian and East Asian
systems in their magnitude, thickness of flow and
geographical coverage.
 There are basic differences in the structure and
physical properties of the monsoon system between
West and East Africa
 In West Africa, a large continental area north of the
equator contrast with the oceanic region of the South
Atlantic Ocean
Eastern North Pacific Monsoon
 Analysis of climatological data for the Pacific Ocean coast
of Mexico (Douglas et al 1993) and over the eastern north
pacific (Wang 1994)  monsoon system exist in the region.
 This is due to:
 Seasonal rainfall distribution along the Pacific coast of
Mexico are similar to those of monsoon Asia
 A distinct ocean summer rainfall season exists, as reflected by
low outgoing longwave radiation amounts in July
 Temperatures peak prior to the onset of the rains
 An annual reversal of the surface wind system from easterly in
January to westerly in July occurs (Douglas et al 1993, Wang & Murakami
1994).
(American Monsoons)
The definition of Monsoon Indices
A. Indian Monsoon (IM) and Western North
Pacific Monsoon (WNPM)

Reference:
Wang, B. and Z. Fan, 1999: Choice of South Asian summer monsoon indices. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 80, 629-638.
Wang, B., R. Wu, K.-M. Lau, 2001: Interannual variability of Asian summer monsoon: Contrast between the Indian and western North
Pacific-East Asian monsoons. J. Climate, 14, 4073-4090.
Daily Indian Monsoon Index
Daily Indian Monsoon Index
Daily Western North Pacific
Monsoon Index
 B. Webster and Yang Monsoon Index (WYM)

Reference:
Webster, P. J. and S. Yang, 1992: Monsoon and ENSO: Selectively interactive systems. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 118, 877-926.
 C. Australian Monsoon (AUSM)

Reference:
Kajikawa, Y., B. Wang and J. Yang, 2010: A multi-time scale Australian monsoon index, Int. J. Climatol, doi: 10.1002/joc.1955.
Daily Australian Monsoon Index
Summary
 The monsoon are characterized by seasonal reversal of
the prevailing wind and seasonal contrast in regimes
of cloudiness, precipitation and temperature.
 Differential seasonal heating of the oceans and
continents, moisture processes in the atmosphere and
the earth’s rotation are the main factors which explain
the existence of the monsoon.
Monsoons and Climate Change