Intraseasonal variation of monsoon activities associated with the rainfall over Bangladesh during the 1995 summer monsoon season

Abstract

The rainfall over Bangladesh during the 1995 summer monsoon season has been investigated in terms of the intraseasonal variation of monsoon activities. The rainfall over Bangladesh is basically dominated by the north-south oscillation of the monsoon trough. The rainfall increases when the monsoon trough is located at the foot of the Himalayas, because synoptic-scale convective activity is much more vigorous to the south of the monsoon trough axis than to the north of it. In addition, the strong southwesterly wind to the south of the monsoon trough intensifies local convective activity owing to the effects of the orography to the north and east of the country. It is also found that the monsoon rainfall over Bangladesh in 1995 varies with a periodicity of ∼20 days, and this rainfall variation is closely associated with synoptic-scale monsoon activities spreading over South and Southeast Asia. The active/break cycle of the rainfall variation during the 1995 summer monsoon season can be mostly explained by the northward propagation of what is called the 10-20 day variation of monsoon activities. Copyright 2000 by the American Geophysical Union.