Observational study of the monsoonal dynamics and eddy shedding phenomena

We analyze atmospheric data in order to study the upper tropospheric dynamics in the area of the Asian summer monsoon. We look at summers of four years from 1987 to 1990. The divergent upper tropospheric circulation of the monsoon often adopts the form of a unified large-scale vortex. However, when the vortex becomes elongated enough, so that the flow in most of the area is close to zonal, the vortex usually sheds secondary, or daughter, vortices that then propagate away. Eddy shedding occurs in all four summers that we examined. We use the potential vorticity and Montgomery stream-function fields to document the characteristics of eddy shedding events. In most cases, the daughter cell propagates westward. In the vertical, eddy shedding is confined to the upper troposphere, between 300 and 100 mb. The relationship between lower convergent and upper divergent levels is strong. However, we have not found any simple relationship between eddy shedding and lower-level dynamics.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1999

Author dc:creator

• Popovic, Jelena M. (Jelena Marko), 1969-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• R. Alan Plumb.

• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55061

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/55061