Monsoon Dynamics

This volume presents a survey of our state of knowledge of the physical and dynamical processes involved in the Asian monsoon.

James Lighthill (Author), R. P. Pearce (Author)

9780521104265, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 March 2009

760 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm, 1.1 kg

'… [sets] an historical landmark from which subsequent progress can be measured.' Contemporary Physics

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Meteorology & climatology [RBP]