Influences of sea surface temperature and ground wetness on Asian summer monsoon

The authors have conducted a series of experiments with a general circulation model to understand the influences of sea surface temperature (SST) and ground wetness (GW) (measured by snow amount and soil moisture content) on the Asian summer monsoon. The experiments are designed to illustrate the dominant features of monsoon response to SST and GW forcings and to delineate the relative importance of each forcing function in contributing to the variability of the monsoon. Results indicate that ocean basin-scale SST anomalies exert a stronger control on the interannual variability of the monsoon compared to GW anomalies. The impact of SST anomalies on the monsoon appears nonlinear with respect to warm and cold events. The monsoon is weakened during the warm events but changes less noticeably during the cold events. The diminution of monsoon circulation associated with the warm SST anomalies is accompanied by a broad-scale reduction in water vapor convergence and monsoon rainfall. Results also indicate that, following wet land surface conditions (enhanced snow and soil moisture) in the Asian continent during previous cold seasons, the summer monsoon becomes moderately weaker. Antecedent land surface processes mainly influence the early part of the monsoon. Wetter and colder conditions occur in the Asian continent during warm SST events. This results in reduced land-sea thermal contrast, which reinforces the weak monsoon anomalies produced initially by warm SST forcing. These interactive forcings are also responsible for the changes in the winter-spring westerlies over subtropical Asia, which are key precursory signals for the subsequent summer monsoon. It should be pointed out that this study is conducted for the climate decade of 1979-88 only. The general robustness of the results needs to be explored by further investigations. In addition, chaotic features may have affected the results because of sampling errors.