Researchers find strong correlation between summer monsoon
and the climate pattern that preceded it
For much of Asia, the pace of life is tuned to rhythms of
monsoons.
The summer rainy season is especially important for securing
the water and food supplies for more than a billion people. Its variations can
mean the difference between drought and flood. Now a Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, UC San Diego-led study reports on a crucial connection that could
drastically improve the ability of forecasters to reliably predict the monsoon
a few months in advance.
Yu Kosaka and Shang-Ping Xie from Scripps and colleagues
from NOAA found that a winter appearance of the climate phenomenon called El
Niño in the Pacific Ocean can leave its mark on monsoon formation in the Indian
Ocean a full six months later. In between is an atmospheric phenomenon called
the Pacific-Japan pattern that provides the teleconnection between the two
ocean basins and further poleward to East Asia.