Extremes of the Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall, ENSO and Equatorial Indian Ocean Oscillation

Abstract

It is well known that anomalies of the Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) are linked to El Nino and Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We show that large anomalies of the ISMR are also linked to the Equatorial Indian Ocean Oscillation (EQUINOO) between states with enhancement/suppression of atmospheric convection over the western part of the equatorial Indian Ocean with suppression/enhancement over the eastern part and associated changes in the anomaly of the zonal wind along the equator. EQUINOO is the atmospheric component of the coupled Indian Ocean Dipole mode. There is a strong relation between the large anomalies of ISMR and a composite index which is a linear combination of the indices for ENSO and EQUINOO with all seasons with large deficits (excess) characterized by small (large) values of the index. However, the variation of ISMR within one standard deviation is more complex and does not appear to be related to the composite index.