Heat and moisture sources and sinks of Asian monsoon precipitating systems

Abstract

The structure and properties of, heat and moisture sources and sinks of the Asian monsoon are reviewed. Results from the First GARP Global Experiment (FGGE) have yielded important information on these sources, ranging from the planetary scale down to the scale of individual convective systems. The emerging picture is one of a complex spatial and temporal distribution of heat sources over the enormous area covered by the Asian monsoon, with the detailed structure of this distribution determined in large part by a wide variety of types of precipitating systems. Several recent experiments, the 1987 Australian Monsoon Experiment (AMEX), the 1987 Equatorial Mesoscale Experiment (EMEX), the Taiwan Area Mesoscale Experiment (TAMEX), and the 1988- 1990 Down Under Doppler and Electricity Experiment (DUNDEE), have provided new knowledge concerning the nature of mesoscale convective systems within the monsoon and their contributions to monsoon heat and moisture sources and sinks. Some of the findings of these experiments confirm previous conceptual models of precipitating systems, but also provide new insight into convective processes in the Asian monsoon.