On the Role of Sea Surface Temperature Variability over the Tropical Indian Ocean in Relation to Summer Monsoon Using Satellite Data

The sea surface temperature (SST) variability over the tropical Indian Ocean is studied for the period January 1988 to December 1992 using the multichannel sea surface temperature (MCSST) from the NOAA series of satellites. The MCSST values were found to agree reasonably well with the Reynolds and Smith (1994) data for the same period, but the anomalies were found to differ significantly. An interesting result is the influence of the Somalia coast zonal anomaly of SST (SCZASST) and central Indian Ocean zonal anomaly of SST (CIOZASST) with the monsoon rainfall over different meteorological subdivisions of the Indian subcontinent. The SCZASST is negatively and significantly correlated with the monsoon rainfall over the western and central parts of India, while CIOZASST is positively and significantly correlated.