CHARACTERISTICS OF 10-DAY MEAN SURFACE SENSIBLE HEAT FLUX VARIATIONS IN THE SCS MONSOON REGION AND POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS WITH THE SCS SUMMER MONSOON ONSET

The time and space variations of the ten-day mean surface sensible heat flux have beenanalyzed in this paper based on the data of NCEP/NCAR from January of 1979 to December of1995 in the South China Sea(SCS)monsoon region.It is found that large variations of the surfacesensible heat flux standard deviations exist in the northwestern Indochina Peninsula and the IndianPeninsula regions,and their locations and strength change significantly during the onset period ofSCS monsoon.The negative deviations appear evidently earlier in the Indocbina Peninsula than inthe Indian Peninsula but the deviation strength in the Indian Peninsula is stronger than that in theIndochina Peninsula.The appearance of the zonal negative mean deviations in the southern part ofthe Indochina Peninsula corresponds to the date of the SCS summer monsoon onset,while theoccurrence of the deviation decrease corresponds to the date of the South Asian monsoon onset.The sensible heat flux increases dekad by dekad before the onset of the summer monsoon in theIndian Peninsula and the Indochina Peninsula and decreases after the monsoon onset.Therefore,the surface sensible heat flux changes in the Indochina and the Indian Peninsula regions maybe havesome connections with the SCS monsoon onset and the Indian monsoon onset,and the IndochinaPeninsula maybe becomes the sensitive or key region to the SCS monsoon onset and the land maybeplays an important role in triggering summer monsoon onset.