IMPACT OF MOISTURE VARIATIONS ON THE CIRCULATION OF THE SOUTH-WEST MONSOON

The impact of moisture anomalies on the circulation of the south-west Indian monsoon has been studied with a general circulation model. Newt onian relaxation is adopted to subject the model atmosphere under sust ained moisture anomalies. The impact of negative anomalies of moisture was wen as a divergent circulation anomaly, while the positive anomal y was a stronger convergent anomaly. Although the humidity fields disp lay a resilient behaviour, and relax back to normal patterns 1-2 days after the forcing terms in humidity am withdrawn, the circulation anom alies created by the moisture variation keeps growing. A feedback betw een positive moisture anomalies and low level convergence exists, whic h is terminated in the absence of external forcings.