Linking Observations of the Asian Monsoon to the Indian Ocean SST: Possible Roles of Indian Ocean Basin Mode and Dipole Mode

Abstract

The authors investigate the relationship between sea surface temperature (SST) in the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) and the seasonal atmosphere circulation in the Asian monsoon region (AMR) using the maximum covariance analyses (MCAs). The results show that the Asian monsoon circulation is significantly correlated with two dominant SST anomaly (SSTA) modes: the Indian Ocean Basin mode (IOB) and the Indian Ocean dipole mode (IOD). The peak SSTA of the IOB appears in spring and has a much stronger relationship with the Asian summer monsoon than the peak of the IOD does, whereas the peak SSTA for the IOD appears in fall and shows a stronger link to the Asian winter monsoon than to the Asian summer monsoon. In addition, the IOB in spring has a relatively stronger link with the atmospheric circulation in summer than in other seasons. The large-scale atmospheric circulation and SSTA patterns of the covariability of the first two dominant MCA modes are described. For the first MCA mode, a warm IOB, persists from spring to summer, and the atmospheric circulation is enhanced by the establishment of the climatological summer monsoon. The increased evaporative moisture associated with the warm IOB is transported to South Asia by the climatological summer monsoon, which increases the moisture convergence toward this region, leading to a significant increase in summer monsoon precipitation. For the second MCA mode, a positive IOD possibly corresponds to a weaker Indian winter monsoon and more precipitation over the southwestern and eastern equatorial TIO.