Abstract
Mid-tropospheric cyclones are often observed on daily and monthly mean maps over southern Asia during the summer southwest monsson season. Although they are important activators of monsoon rains over certain regions, only a few observational studies are available, and even fewer theoretical and numerical studies have been performed. This article attempts to summarize the present observational knowledge about mid-tropospheric cyclones and reviews current ideas on the formation, maintenance and dissipation of these systems. A recent numerical simulation of a mid-tropospheric cyclone is described. In general, latent heat release plays the dominant role in the dynamics of the cyclone. Much is still to be learned about mid-tropospheric cyclones and several promising areas of future research are suggested.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbott, D. A. (1973),Scale interactions of forced quasi-stationary planetary waves at low latitudes, Rept. 73-2, Dept. of Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, 190 pp.
Arakawa, A. andSchubert, W. H. (1974),Interaction of a cumulus cloud ensemble with the large-scale environment. Part 1., J. Atmos. Sci.31, 674–701.
Carr, F. H. (1977),Numerical simulation of a mid-tropospheric cyclone, Rept. 77-1, Dept. of Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, 267 pp.
Charney, J. G. (1947),The dynamics of long waves in a baroclinic westerly current, J. Meteor.4, 135–162.
Charney, J. G. andDrazin, P. G. (1961),Propagation of planetary disturbances from the lower into the upper atmosphere, J. Geophys. Res.66, 83–109.
Charney, J. G. andEliassen, A. (1964),On the growth of the hurricane depression, J. Atmos. Sci.21, 68–75.
Eady, E. T. (1949),Long waves and cyclone waves, Tellus,1, 33–52.
Krishnamurti, T. N. (1968),A diagnostic balance model for studies of weather systems of low and high latidues, Rossby number less than 1, Mon. Wea. Rev.96, 197–207.
Krishnamurti, T. N. andBhalme, H. N. (1976),Oscillations of a monsoon system. Part I: Observational aspects. J. Atmos. Sci.33, 1937–1954.
Krishnamurti, T. N. andHawkins, R. S. (1970),Mid-tropospheric cyclones of the southwest monsson, J. Appl. Meteor.9, 442–458.
Krishnamurti, T. N., Kanamitsu, M., Godbole, R., Chang, C.-B., Carr, F. andChow, J. (1976),Study of a monsoon depression (II)—Dynamical structure, J. Meteor. Soc. Japan54, 208–225.
Kuo, H. L. (1965),On formation and intensification of tropical cyclones through latent heat release by cumulus convection, J. Atmos. Sci.22, 40–63.
Mak, M.-K. (1975),The monsoonal mid-tropospheric cyclogenesis, J. Atmos. Sci.32, 2246–2253.
Miller, F. R. andKeshavamurthy, R. N. (1968),Structure of an Arabian Sea summer monsoon system, I.I.O.E. Meteorological Monograph1, (East-West Center Press, Honolulu), 94 pp.
Murakami, M. (1976),Analysis of summer monsoon fluctuations over India, J. Meteor. Soc. Japan54, 15–31.
Murakami, T. andFrydrych, M. (1974),On the preferred period of upper wind fluctuations during the summer monsoon, J. Atmos. Sci.31, 1549–1555.
Petterssen, S. (1953),On the dynamics of the Indian monsoon, Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. Ser. A37, 229–233.
Ramage, C. S. (1962),The subtropical cyclone, J. Geophys. Res.,67, 1401–1411.
Ramage, C. S. (1964),Some preliminary results from the International Meteorological Center, In Proc. Symp. Tropical Meteor., New Zealand Meteorological Service. Wellington, 403–408.
Ramage, C. S. (1966),The summer atmospheric circulation over the Arabian Sea, J. Atmos. Sci.23, 144–150.
Ramage, C. S.,Monsoon meteorology (Academic Press, New York 1971), 296 pp.
Raman, C. R. V. andRamanathan, Y. (1964),Interaction between lower and upper tropical tropospheres, Nature204, 31–35.
Ramaswamy, C. (1962),Breaks in the Indian summer monsoon as a phenomenon of interaction between the easterly and the sub-tropical westerly jet streams, Tellus14, 337–349.
Rao, Y. P. (1962),Meridional circulation associated with the monsoons of India, Ind. J. Meteor. Geophys.13, 157–166.
Shukla, J. (1976),On the dynamics of monsoon disturbances, Ph.D. Dissertation, Dept. of Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
Thiruvengadathan, A. (1972),Synoptic situations associated with spells of strong and weak monsoon over Konkan, Ind. J. Meteor. Geophys.23, 207–210.
Washington, W. M. andBaumhefner, D. P. (1975),A method of removing Lamb waves from initial data for primitive equation models, J. Appl. Meteor.14, 114–119.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Carr, F.H. Mid-tropospheric cyclones of the summer monsoon. PAGEOPH 115, 1383–1412 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00874415
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00874415