Post-monsoon sea surface temperature and convection anomalies over Indian and Pacific Oceans

We have studied sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the Indian and Pacific Oceans (domain 25degreesS to 25degreesN and 40 E to 160 W) during the three seasons following the Indian summer monsoon for wet monsoons and also for dry monsoons accompanied or not by El Nino. A dry monsoon is followed by positive SST anomalies in the longitude belt 40 to 120degreesE, negative anomalies in 120 to 160degreesE and again positive anomalies east of 160degreesE. In dry monsoons accompanied by El Nino the anomalies have the same sign, but are much stronger. Wet monsoons have weak anomalies of opposite sign in all three of the longitude belts. Thus El Nino and a dry monsoon have the same types of association with the Indian and Pacific Ocean SSTs. In the sector 40 to 120degreesE SST anomalies first appear over the western part of the Indian Ocean (June to September) followed by the same sign of anomalies over its eastern part and China Sea (October to March). By March after a dry monsoon or El Nino the Indian Ocean between 10degreesN and 10degreesS has a spatially large warm SST anomaly. Anomalies in deep convection tend to follow the SST anomalies, with warm SST anomalies producing positive convection anomalies around the seasonal location of the intertropical convergence zone. Copyright (C) 2002 Royal Meteorological Society.