The oceanic fingerprints on changing monsoons over South and Southeast Asia

As moisture fluxes increase in a warming climate, the contrast between wet and dry meteorological regimes, seasons and extreme events amplifies.

This research will focus on changes in the hydrological cycle of the Indian Peninsula and Maritime Southeast Asia, where monsoon rainfall is largely fed by moisture from the ocean.

Understanding and quantifying changes in the monsoons and tropical rain bands driven by oceanic warming are of paramount importance as new extremes impact hundreds of millions of people.

Whilst thermodynamic responses of the hydrological cycle under global warming are relatively well known, the atmospheric moisture transport response to ocean warming is complex and much less understood due to numerous atmospheric and oceanic feedbacks that are involved.

Using a variety of models and observations, we will use and develop novel methods to explore how ocean warming is changing the regional hydrological cycle through shifts in evaporation and atmospheric moisture transport over the tropical Indian and Western Pacific oceans - the oceanic 'fingerprints' on changing monsoons.