Characteristics of convection and advection associated with the Asian Summer Monsoon Anticyclone

The Asian Summer Monsoon Anticyclone (ASMA) is a gateway for atmospheric pollutants transported to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). Thus, it is necessary to understand the relative roles of vertical transport due to convection and horizontal transport due to advection in the formation and sustenance of the ASMA. Outgoing longwave radiation reveals that the ASMA region shows characteristic features associated with strong convective activity in its eastern (70°–120° E) part while subsidence dominates in the western (20°–70° E) part. Over the convective region, the convergence of latent heat flux extends from the Indian mainland (65°–110° E) to the west Pacific Warm Pool (WP) (110°–160° E). On average the ASMA region is characterized by a main convective outflow level at ~ 9 km. This level varies considerably with longitude being higher (~ 10.5 km) over the convective region and lower (~ 7 km) over the subsidence region. Furthermore, the mean convective outflow level is higher over the WP (11.5 km) region when compared to the Indian mainland (10 km) region. From the thermodynamic energy equation, we have calculated the convective and advective terms and found anomalously cold advection over the subsidence region and warm advection over the convective region. The warm advection over the convective region is split into two parts with the stronger one located over the Indian region and the weaker one over the WP region. Similarly, stronger convection occurs over the Indian mainland (convective term ~ 4 K/day) compared to the WP (~ 1 K/day). The cold advection over the subsidence region is mainly centered near 30° E longitude. The convection over the Indian region and the cold advection over the subsidence region as well as warm advection and convection over the WP region are associated. We find that the advective terms change in magnitude and shift together with the convective terms in response to signals of the El Nino Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole.