Unraveling the Mystery of Indian Monsoon Failure During El Nino
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration · Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology · +5 more institutions
Abstract
The 132-year historical rainfall record reveals that severe droughts in India have always been accompanied by El Niño events. Yet El Niño events have not always produced severe droughts. We show that El Niño events with the warmest sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the central equatorial Pacific are more effective in focusing drought-producing subsidence over India than events with the warmest SSTs in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The physical basis for such different impacts is established using atmospheric general circulation model experiments forced with idealized tropical Pacific warmings. These findings have important implications for Indian monsoon forecasting.
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 15.08
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 15
Authors
5- KKKireet Kumar
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Columbia University, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
- BRBalaji Rajagopalan
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Columbia University, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
- MPMartin P. HoerlingCorresponding
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Columbia University, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
- GTGary T. Bates
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Columbia University, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
- MAMark A. Cane
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Columbia University, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
Topics & keywords
- Monsoon
- History
- Geology
- Oceanography
- Life below water