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Temperature, precipitation and sunshine duration measurements at meteorological stations across the southern Indian Ocean have been analysed to try to differentiate the possible influence of the Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption in the Philippines in June 1991 and the normal weather forcings. During December 1991, precipitation on the tropical islands Glorieuses (11.6° S) and Mayotte (12.8° S) was 4 and 3 times greater, respectively, than the climatological mean (precipitation is greater by more than than twice the standard deviation (SD)). Mean sunshine duration (expressed in sun hours per day) was only 6 h on Mayotte, although the sunshine duration is usually more than 7.5±0.75 h, and on the Glorieuses it was only 5 h, although it is usually 8.5±1 h. Mean and SD of sunshine duration are based on December (1964-2001 for Mayotte, 1966-1999 for the Glorieuses). The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is shown to correlate best with precipitation in this area. Variability controlling the warm zone on these two islands can be increased by the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), El Niño, the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) and/or solar activity (sunspot number, SSN). However, temperature records of these two islands show weak dependence on such forcings (temperatures are close to the climatological mean for December). This suggests that such weather forcings have an indirect effect on the precipitation. December 1991 was associated with unusually low values of the MJO index, which favours high rainfall, as well as with El Niño, eastern QBO and high SSN, which favour high variability. It is therefore not clear whether the Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption had an effect. Since the precipitation anomalies at the Glorieuses and Mayotte are more or less local (Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) data) and the effect of the Pinatubo volcanic cloud should be more widespread, it seems unlikely that Pinatubo was the cause. Islands at higher southern latitudes (south of Tromelin at 15.5° S) were not affected by the Pinatubo eruption in terms of sunshine duration, precipitation or temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the French non-hydrostatic mesoscale numerical model Méso-NH, intense tropical cyclone (TC) Dina (2002) is simulated to investigate the forcing caused by the steep orography of Réunion island (20.8° S, 55.5° E) in the southwest Indian Ocean. The model initialised by a bogus vortex derived from Doppler radar observations reproduces quite well the dynamical characteristics of TC Dina approaching the island and provides some clues on the orographic influence on the structure and the evolution of the TC. The presence of the island is observed to stabilise the cyclonic circulation by damping the natural elliptical eyewall rotation and forcing the flow circulation. Initially, the cyclonic flow is blocked upwind of the orography which induces a convergence associated with upward vertical velocities, intense precipitation and maximum horizontal winds along the upwind slopes of the island. A mountain wave, generated over the highest terrains, is associated with downward motions on the lee side. When the strongest winds reach the island, the flow changes its behaviour from passing around to over the island. Non-dimensional flow parameters in agreement with recent theories are calculated to explain TC track. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three-dimensional distribution of various cloud types over the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) region using five years (2006-2010) of CloudSat observations during June-July-August-September months is discussed for the first time. As the radiative properties, latent heat released and microphysical properties of clouds differ largely depending on the cloud type, it becomes important to know what types of clouds occur over which region. In this regard, the present analysis establishes the three-dimensional distribution of frequency of occurrence of stratus (St), stratocumulus (Sc), nimbostratus (Ns), cumulus (Cu), altocumulus (Ac), altostratus (As), cirrus (Ci) and deep convective (DC) clouds over the ISM region. The results show that the various cloud types preferentially occur over some regions of the ISM, which are consistent during all the years of observations. It is found that the DC clouds frequently occur over northeast of Bay of Bengal (BoB), Ci clouds over a wide region of south BoB-Indian peninsula-equatorial Indian Ocean, and Sc clouds over the north Arabian Sea. Ac clouds preferentially occur over land, and a large amount of As clouds are found over BoB. The occurrence of both St and Ns clouds over the study region is much lower than all other cloud types.The interannual variability of all these clouds including their vertical distribution is discussed. It is envisaged that the present study opens up possibilities to quantify the feedback of individual cloud type in the maintenance of the ISM through radiative forcing and latent heat release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]