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Influence of the Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation on the monsoon precipitation in Nepal

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An Erratum to this article was published on 18 July 2012

Abstract

Nepal’s precipitation is uncorrelated with the all-India monsoon precipitation. However, the quasi-decadal variability of precipitation is significant in the Nepal Himalayas but its mechanism has received little attention. Using a set of century-long reanalysis and observations of precipitation, spectral and empirical orthogonal function analyses were conducted to determine the role of the Pacific Quasi-Decadal Oscillation (QDO) in Nepal’s precipitation regime. The dynamical and moisture processes involved in the Pacific QDO of the monsoon precipitation in Nepal were also examined. The monsoon precipitation in Nepal is enhanced when southeasterly moisture fluxes, originated from the Bay of Bengal, divert towards the north and subsequently interact with the southern Himalayan foothills. The redirected moisture fluxes are modulated through the Pacific QDO and are embedded in a propagating global wave 1–2 circulation pattern. However, the modulation exhibits a phase shift of 2 years between the precipitation anomalies in Nepal and the extreme phases of the Pacific QDO. A phase shift of this nature ascribes to the low correlation skill between the Nepal precipitation and traditional monsoon indices, such as those of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the all-India precipitation. The lagged relationship between the monsoon precipitation and the Pacific QDO is unique to Nepal, the inclusion of which should improve the predictive ability for the Nepal monsoon.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the United States Agency for International Development through Grant no. EEM-A-00-10-00001, and by the Utah State University Agricultural Experiment Station as paper no. 8364. Support for the 20CR is provided by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (DOE INCITE) program, and Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), and by the NOAA Climate Program Office. APHRODITE’s Water Resources project is supported by Environment Research and Technology Development Fund of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Utah Climate Center, Utah State University, 4820 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322-4820, USA

    Shih-Yu Wang & Robert R. Gillies

  2. Department of Plants, Soils, and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Shih-Yu Wang & Robert R. Gillies

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  1. Shih-Yu Wang
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  2. Robert R. Gillies
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Correspondence to Shih-Yu Wang.

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Wang, SY., Gillies, R.R. Influence of the Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation on the monsoon precipitation in Nepal. Clim Dyn 40, 95–107 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1376-2

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