Interannual variability of surface fields over the Indian Ocean during recent decades.

Abstract

The interannual variability of surface meteorological fields over the Indian Ocean during the period 1954-76 is studied using 2 million ship reports obtained from different sources. Monthly mean fields of wind, pressure, air temperature mixing ratio, cloud cover and sea surface temperature (SST) on a grid mesh of 2o have been determined by computing the monthly mean values of the data around each grid point. Because data coverage is poor over certain areas, an objective analysis based on the successive correction method was performed. -from Authors