Intraseasonal oscillations in East Asian and South Asian monsoons

Abstract

This study has investigated the relation between the East Asian monsoon and the South Asian monsoon at intraseasonal time scale during the boreal summer. Applying a data adaptive method on daily anomalies of precipitation, two leading intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) were extracted separately in the regions of South Asia, tropical East Asia and subtropical East Asia. The first ISO has a period of about 45 days and propagates northward and eastward over the South Asian and tropical East Asian regions. The second ISO, with a period of about 26 days, propagates northeastward over South Asia and northwestward over tropical East Asia. Although both the ISOs are also present over the subtropical East Asia, the variance is low while no propagation is evident. The circulation patterns associated with the ISOs were found to be consistent with the corresponding precipitation patterns of the ISOs. The two ISOs also reveal consistency with the space–time evolution of diabatic heating, convection, vertical motion, upper-level divergence and moisture transport. The zonal and meridional propagation of the ISOs provide a strong link between the South Asian monsoon and East Asian monsoon regions. The subtropical East Asian region seems to have a weaker link with the other monsoon regions.