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Role of Intra-Seasonal Variability in the Indian Summer Monsoon on the Hydration and Dehydration of the Upper Troposphere

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Abstract

Seven years of high-resolution measurements of upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) from the Indian Geostationary satellite, Kalpana-1, are used to understand the hydration and dehydration processes during the active and break phases of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM). The active and break phases are identified using the TRMM-3B42 daily rainfall data over the Central Indian region. The most significant and new observation is that the upper troposphere is dry during the active and wet during the break phases of the ISM. Satellite measurements of humidity from Megha-Tropiques SAPHIR and water vapor mixing ratio from Aura microwave limb sounder also show dryness in the upper troposphere during the active and wetness during the break phases of ISM. The analysis illustrates that dehydration dominates during the active and hydration during the break phases. Cloud-aerosol lidar with orthogonal polarization data shows that cirrus (sub-categorized as sub-visible, thin, and thick) occurrence is more during the active phase as compared with the break phase. The dehydration mechanism during the active phase of ISM is attributed to the presence of cirrus. This study provides evidence that the upper troposphere shows dehydration during the active and hydration during the break phase of the ISM, thereby exhibiting intra-seasonal variability in the UTH.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to sincerely thank the MOSDAC team “www.mosdac.gov.in” for providing the UTH data. The authors would also like to thank the CLOUDSAT/CALIOP team “https://subset.larc.nasa.gov/calipso/index.php” for providing data of cirrus clouds. We also thank the TRMM team for providing rainfall data through “https://pmm.nasa.gov/data-access/downloads/trmm.” The team from ERA-interim “http://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/data/interim-full-daily/levtype=pl/” is also acknowledged for providing winds and temperature. We also thank the MLS team for providing water vapor mixing ratio from https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets?page=1&keywords=ML2H2O_003.3. One of the authors, Dr. K. N. Uma, would like to thank Director SPL for providing support to carry out this work. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous referee for his critical examination and insightful comments that improved the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum, 695022, India

    K. N. Uma

  2. National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, New Delhi, India

    T. S. Mohan

  3. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India

    Subrata Kumar Das

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  1. K. N. Uma
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Correspondence to K. N. Uma.

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Uma, K.N., Mohan, T.S. & Das, S.K. Role of Intra-Seasonal Variability in the Indian Summer Monsoon on the Hydration and Dehydration of the Upper Troposphere. Theor Appl Climatol 141, 747–761 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-020-03243-y

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