The Monsoon of East Asia and its Global Associations—A Survey

TLDR

Observations of East Asian summer and winter monsoons and their global associations are reviewed, emphasizing the importance of understanding long‑term anomalies for global weather forecasting and climate prediction. The study presents the current status of monsoon observations and theory, highlights key scientific problems, and proposes future research directions. The authors discuss seasonal mean structure, transient variations from intraseasonal to interannual scales, and synoptic to planetary fluctuations for both monsoon components, survey similarities and differences with the Indian monsoon, and review current observational and theoretical research.

Abstract

Observations concerning the summer and winter monsoons of East Asia and their global associations are reviewed. The seasonal mean structure, transient variation, including intraseasonal to interannual, and synoptic to planetary scale fluctuations are discussed separately for the two monsoon components. Similarities and differences between the East Asian monsoon and that of India are also surveyed. We also present a description of the current status of monsoon related observational and theoretical research and highlight important scientific problems. The importance of understanding the long-term anomalies of the monsoon is stressed, and an attempt is made to put the East Asian monsoon in a global perspective with a view towards identifying with the problems of long-range weather forecasting or short-term climate prediction, in general. Finally, some future directions of research are suggested.