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Tuesday, March 30, 2021. 1:00 PM Eastern. Webinar: Analyzing the Impact of Intraseasonal Oscillations on Indian Monsoon Variability. Heather Roman-Stork, NOAA. Sponsored by NCAR/UCAR. More information here.

The Indian Ocean and the monsoon system are dynamically complex. In the Bay of Bengal (BoB) and southeastern Arabian Sea (SEAS), surface circulation is strongly influenced by the monsoons and notable local eddying that modulates the East India Coastal Current (EICC). In this study, the role of freshwater transported from the BoB into the SEAS in determining both the timing of monsoon onset and the strength of the ensuing monsoon is examined. It is found that the long-term decrease in moisture flux from the sea surface and freshwater transport into the SEAS, along with a rise in upper ocean heat content (OHC) over a 15-year duration after 1994, contributed to the lack of strong monsoons in recent years; the prevailing interannual and interdecadal variability in these parameters associated with the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events favored weaker and normal monsoons after 1994 until the strong monsoon of 2019.