On the meridional and zonal fluxes of energy components in the troposphere over the Arabian Sea with the advancement of SW-monsoon

Abstract

The rawinsonde data of MONEX-79 have been utilized to study the zonal and meridional fluxes of dry and moist static energies and their weekly means for the troposphere over the Arabian Sea at lower latitudes. The mean zonal fluxes of dry and moist static energies, in general, show gradual march towards positive (eastward) value through the lower troposphere upto about 500 mb and the flux then becomes sharply negative (westward) from 300 mb onwards with the nearing of the on-setting date of monsoon. As the monsoon advances, the meridional fluxes of both dry static and moist static energy are found to have gradual change from the dominance of negative (southward) values towards positive in the lower and middle troposphere. The mean flux contribution of latent heat to that of moist static energy, both in the case of zonal and meridional, is not generally found to exceed 15 per cent of that of dry static energy in the lower troposphere. The latent heat contribution above 300 mb is insignificant.