Bay of Bengal: coupling of pre-monsoon tropical cyclones with the monsoon onset in Myanmar

Abstract

The pre-monsoon tropical cyclone (TC) activity and the monsoon evolution in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) are both influenced by the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO), but the two do not always occur in unison. This study examines the conditions that allow the MJO to modulate the monsoon onset in Myanmar and TC activity concurrently. Using the APHRODITE gridded precipitation and the ERA-Interim reanalysis datasets, composite evolutions of monsoon rainfall and TC genesis are constructed for the period of 1979–2010. It is found that the MJO exhibits a strong interannual variability in terms of phase and intensity, which in some years modulate the conditions for BoB TCs to shortly precede or form concurrently with the monsoon onset in Myanmar. Such a modulation is absent in years of weaker MJO events. Further understanding of the interannual variability of MJO activity could facilitate the prediction of the monsoon onset and TC formation in the BoB.