The onset of the Australian monsoon during winter MONEX: synoptic aspects.

Abstract

A case study is presented of the onset of the Southern Hemisphere summer monsoon at longitudes near Australia during December 1978. The numerical analyses comprising this case study are used in conjunction with station data and operational manually derived analyses for other years to investigate: 1) ease of definition of monsoon onset; 2) three-dimensional structure of the troposphere during an active monsoon situation; and 3) flow changes preceding and during the transition from a period of suppressed to a period of enhanced cumulonimbus activity over tropical Australia. -from Authors