Monsoon Climates
One of the important findings in our previous study of monsoon climatology was that changes in the heat and moisture budgets of the Asian continent and surrounding oceans impact the summer monsoon systems in East Asia and India. Drawing on finding, we extended our monsoon research to the West African monsoon and the North-East Indian monsoon (Indian monsoon during October-December).
Minjoo Kim and Eungul Lee investigated the associations between Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) and the Southern Indian Ocean Dipole (SIOD) variability and the related physical processes by utilizing the observed and reanalysis data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and ERA5, respectively. Our study suggested that the positive phase of SIOD mode could drive contrasting patterns through distinct characteristics of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal monsoon branches. Understanding the spatio-temporal variability of ISMR is crucial for effective water management and agricultural policies in the region.
Geography of Monsoon
We were invited to contribute to Oxford Bibliographies as the author of an article on monsoon climates. Yaqian He, Jothi Shanmugasundram, and Eungul Lee have prepared an annotated bibliography, with sections on monsoon dynamics, monsoon variability, and regional monsoons, with the key books and papers of monsoon identified [Lee, He, and Shanmugasundaram, 2017 Oxford University Press]. We believe that “Geography of Monsoons” will provide a scaffolding for research and teaching that guides readers through the most essential sources on monsoon climates.
Our collaborators in the Forestry and Natural Resources at WVU (Mo Zhou and Jingjing Liang), Yaqian He, and Eungul Lee identified the potential positive feedback of vegetation change on summer monsoon rainfall in the Sahel and suggested that recently intensifying agricultural practices could play a role in re-greening the Sahel and thereby favor rainfall increase in this moisture-limited region [Lee et al., 2015 Physical Geography]. In a follow-on study, Yaqian He and Eungul Lee documented that the regional land surface forcing contribution to Sahel summer rainfall is stronger than that of the remote ocean forcing, during the recent three decades [He and Lee, 2016 Earth Interactions]. Our results of the Sahel monsoon studies indicate that the land surface processes related to vegetation change exert important roles in explaining the Sahel summer rainfall variability.