Effect of sea surface temperature on monsoon rainfall in a coastal region of India

The Indian Monsoon, the onset and strength of which decides the fate of millions of people in the Indian sub continent, depends on a number of global parameters and phenomena – most of which are continuous. It is well established that almost all global climatic phenomena are inter-related. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is one of the key factors influencing the Indian monsoon. Even roughly predicting the Indian Monsoon helps considerably the economies of the countries in the Indian sub continent – most of which are agriculture based. In the present study, an attempt is made to establish a relationship between Sea Surface Temperatures across the globe and monsoon rainfall in coastal region of Orissa State, India. This study aims at evolving and analyzing the correlation contour patterns using GrADS (Grid Analysis and Display System) software for different lead times and then interpret the salient features, to predict monsoon in Orissa based on SST anomaly data. The correlation contours generated in this study will prove quite useful for predicting the rainfall pattern over Coastal Orissa, based on variation in sea surface temperatures across the globe and in marking out the regions of influence.