Session Details - AS10


Session Details
Section AS - Atmospheric Sciences
Session Title Monsoon Climates over South, East and Southeast Asia
Main Convener Dr. Ramesh Kripalani (Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India)
Co-convener(s) Prof. Jaiho Oh (Pukyong National University, Korea, South)
Prof. Kyung-Ja Ha (Pusan National University, Korea, South)
Dr. June-Yi Lee (Pusan National University, Korea, South)
Session Description The Asian Monsoon is broadly composed of the South Asian, the East Asian, the South-east Asian and the West-North Pacific monsoons The South Asian (in particular India) and the East Asian (In particular China) form the major dominant components. Possible connections between these components have been a topic of research since decades. Similarities and differences between the monsoons over India and China have been investigated since the 1930s. While one school of thought regards that the South Asian monsoon drives the East Asian monsoon, another view regards the features over East Asia as possible drivers for the South Asian monsoon. Recent studies connect the trend towards South Flood / North drought in China and the drying trend over northern China during recent decades to the reported drying trend over India. While the summer monsoon rainfall over India and North China has been indicating a declining trend, it has been indicating an increasing trend over Yangzte-Huai River valley and even over South Korea. Furthermore, even the summer monsoon rainfall variations over some parts of Southeast Asia (northern Thailand / Brunei / Borneo / Indonesia) vary in the same phase as those over India and north China on inter-annual time-scales. However, the regions surrounding the South China Sea (e.g. NW Philippines) vary in the opposite phase. The Mid-latitude circulation features, the South Asian High, the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode, the West-North Pacific Subtropical High and the El Nino Southern Oscillation have been identified as the possible drivers for these tele-connections. A prime objective here will be to bridge the gap in the knowledge and understanding and attempt to identify the spatial patterns of the connected and the independent modes. Hence this session invites contributions on monsoon climates over South, East and Southeast Asia, and their connections based on observed data, proxy sources (e.g. tree-rings, oxygen isotopes in speleothems data from caves) and model simulations and projections (e.g CMIP5 data sets) on inter-annual and multi-decadal times.