Thermal Controls on the Asian Summer Monsoon

The Asian summer monsoon affects more than sixty percent of the world's population; understanding its controlling factors is becoming increasingly important due to the expanding human influence on the environment and climate and the need to adapt to global climate change. Various mechanisms have been suggested; however, an overarching paradigm delineating the dominant factors for its generation and strength remains debated. Here we use observation data and numerical experiments to demonstrates that the Asian summer monsoon systems are controlled mainly by thermal forcing whereas large-scale orographically mechanical forcing is not essential: the South Asian monsoon south of 20°N by land-sea thermal contrast,…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 1034439
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Award: DESC0005110
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China
• NO
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

  Award: NA10OAR4310200