Atlantic multidecadal oscillation

Teleconnection

Geology

Meteorology

Pacific decadal oscillation

Spatial coherence

Mathematics

Indian Ocean Dipole

Biology

Statistics

Precipitation

Monsoon

North Atlantic oscillation

Geography

Oscillation (cell signaling)

Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy)

Climatology

Environmental science

El Niño Southern Oscillation

Genetics

Nonlinear processes in geophysics

Abstract. A better understanding of precipitation dynamics in the Indian subcontinent is required since India's society depends heavily on reliable monsoon forecasts. We introduce a non-linear, multiscale approach, based on wavelets and event synchronization, for unravelling teleconnection influences on precipitation. We consider those climate patterns with the highest relevance for Indian precipitation. Our results suggest significant influences which are not well captured by only the wavelet coherence analysis, the state-of-the-art method in understanding linkages at multiple timescales. We find substantial variation across India and across timescales. In particular, El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) mainly influence precipitation in the south-east at interannual and decadal scales, respectively, whereas the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has a strong connection to precipitation, particularly in the northern regions. The effect of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) stretches across the whole country, whereas the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) influences precipitation particularly in the central arid and semi-arid regions. The proposed method provides a powerful approach for capturing the dynamics of precipitation and, hence, helps improve precipitation forecasting.

Unravelling the spatial diversity of Indian precipitation teleconnections via a non-linear multi-scale approach