The monsoon and its variability

Overview

Introduction: Monsoon definitions, summer monsoon, post-monsoon and winter monsoon, nature of the variability of the Indian summer monsoon - Background about the atmosphere and rotating systems - Convection and rainfall in the tropics, organization over different spatial scales, conditional instability of the first and second kind Active and weak spells, breaks in the monsoon - Basic system responsible for the monsoon - Tropical Convergence Zones (TCZs) and the Indian monsoon - Variation of convection/rainfall over the Ocean: SST-rainfall relationship - Heat lows, TCZ and monsoonal regions of the world - Seasonal transitions (onset and retreat) and climatic clusters - Intraseasonal variation and intraseasonal oscillation - Tropical Oceans: background - El Nino and Southern Oscillation - Indian ocean and the Indian monsoon - Interannual variation of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall: links to events over the Indian and Pacific Ocean - Monsoon variability, agriculture and economy - Monsoon Prediction: problems and prospects