On the Relationship Between Eurasian Snow Cover and the Asian Summer Monsoon

Sankar–Rao, M.; Lau, K.-M.; Yang, Song

doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-0088(199606)16:6<605::aid-joc41>3.0.co;2-p

Cited by 118 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Observational studies using satellite-measured snow cover or depth data (Hahn and Shukla, 1976;Kripalani et al, 1996;Sankar-Rao et al, 1996;Bamzai and Shukla, 1999) and historical snow depth data (Kripalani and Kulkarni, 1999) showed that there generally exists an inverse relationship between the year-to-year variations of snow cover or depth over Eurasia and the Indian monsoon rainfall, indicating that excessive (deficient) Eurasian snow cover in winter/spring is followed by weak (strong) Indian monsoon rainfall. Moreover, the winter snow anomaly of western Eurasia seems to have the strongest inverse correlation with the Indian summer rainfall (Bamzai and Shukla, 1999;Kripalani and Kulkarni, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The linkage between Eurasian snow cover and summer rainfall over China was shown to be more complicated (Yang and Xu, 1994). Additionally, the snow-monsoon relation is influenced by El Niño-southern oscillation (ENSO) events (Sankar-Rao et al, 1996;Yang, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, these studies were mainly concerned with the relation of the winter/spring snow anomaly to the Indian or Chinese monsoon rainfall, without examining its possible relation with the summer rainfall over other parts of the Asian continent. In addition, most of the previous observation studies, except Sankar-Rao et al (1996), focused on the effect of snow anomaly on the monsoon rainfall, and rarely examined the effect on the large-scale atmospheric circulation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of Eurasian spring snow cover on Asian summer rainfall

Liu

Yanai

2002

Intl Journal of Climatology

131

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The Eurasian snow cover anomaly in spring has been considered as one of the important factors affecting Asian summer monsoon variability. Using the long time series of Eurasian spring (March-April) snow cover (ESSC) reconstructed by Brown (2000. Journal of Climate 13: 2339) and snow cover (1973-98) and depth (1979-87) data from satellite observation, the influences of ESSC on the all-India monsoon (June-September) rainfall (AIMR) and the summer rainfall over all parts of Asia are examined. It is found that the statistical relation between AIMR and ESSC changes over a multi-decadal time scale. The negative correlation between them has increased markedly since the mid 1970s. The region where the summer rainfall has the strongest and most stable negative correlation with the preceding ESSC is located in northern Mongolia, south of Lake Baikal. The correlation between the summer rainfall and ESSC increases after the data are treated with a low-pass filter, showing that the impact of snow cover may be seen more clearly with the removal of the effect of El Niño-southern oscillation. Comparative analyses for contrasting years with excessive and deficient snow cover show that the anomalies of ESSC occur mainly in northwestern Eurasia. In the years of excessive ESSC anomalies, cooling and a cyclonic circulation anomaly in the lower troposphere appear over the northern part of Eurasia, leading to a Rossby-wave-train-like circulation response, then a weakened East Asia summer monsoon and deficient rainfall with an anticyclonic circulation anomaly south of Lake Baikal. Anomalies with opposite signs occur in the years of deficient snow cover.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of Eurasian spring snow cover on Asian summer rainfall

Liu

Yanai

2002

Intl Journal of Climatology

131

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“…Earlier studies by several authors (Hahn and Shukla, 1976;Dickson, 1984;Sankar-Rao et al, 1996;Bamzai and Shukla 1999;Kripalani and Kulkarni, 1999), based on observed data, show the inverse relationship between the Indian summer monsoon and the Eurasian snow cover/depth in the preceding season. Bamzai and Shukla (1999) studied snowfall frequency data and confirmed that the correlation between the winter/spring snow cover anomaly and subsequent monsoon rains is statistically significant for the western Eurasia region only.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Kripalani et al (2002) showed that winter/spring time snow depth over western Eurasia is negatively related, whereas the snow depth over eastern Eurasia (over Manchuria-eastern Siberia) is positively related with Korean monsoon rainfall, and the low-level jet over the east Asian sector could be considerably influenced by the snow distribution over Eurasia. Sankar-Rao et al (1996) using NOAA NESDIS data for the period concluded that, following the winters of more snow, stationary perturbations with higher pressure over central Asia, north of India, are produced in the lower atmosphere, which weakens the following Asian summer monsoon. Simultaneously, in the upper atmosphere, a lowerpressure anomaly during summer weakens the upper-level monsoon high.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A study on the effect of Eurasian snow on the summer monsoon circulation and rainfall using a spectral GCM

2006

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Many studies based on observed data indicate the inverse relationship between the Eurasian snow cover/depth and the Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR). The purpose of this study is to confirm the inverse snow-ISMR relationship by using the observed snow depth data as boundary conditions in the spectral general circulation model (GCM) of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD), and to examine the influence of Eurasian snow depth on the monsoon circulation. The original model belonging to the European Centre for Medium range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) at resolution T21 has been modified extensively to a higher resolution of T80L18 at IITD. A two-dimensional Lanczos digital filter has been used to represent the orography realistically.The Historical Soviet Daily Snow Depth (HSDSD) version II data set has been used for conducting sensitivity experiments using the above model. Two sensitivity experiments have been designed, corresponding to two contrasting cases: one with high Eurasian snow depth in spring followed by deficient ISMR and the second with low snow depth followed by excess ISMR. The difference fields of mean monsoon circulation simulated in the above two experiments are examined in detail in order to confirm the influence of Eurasian snow depth on ISMR and to examine the Asian summer monsoon circulation and rainfall.

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