Rainfall Variability over Thailand Related to the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
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Author list: Kirtphaiboon, S.;Wongwises, P.;Limsakul, A.;Sooktawee, S.;Humphries, U.
Publication year: 2014
Journal: Journal of Sustainable Energy and Environment (1906-4918)
Volume number: 5
Issue number: 2
Start page: 37
End page: 42
ISSN: 1906-4918
Abstract
This study analyzed the monthly rainfall data of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) over Thailand, covering the period of 1971 to 2010 using the Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) technique. The most dominant mode accounts for 21.6% of the total variance. The next part was a study of the relationship with ENSO using smoothed anomalies between the Nino 3.4 index and the principal component time series.It was found that the Nino 3.4 SST index leads the rainfall anomalies by 4 months. This study used ENSO events divided into weak and strong intensity classes. It was based on composites of fourteen weak La Nina events, six strong La Nina events, twelve weak El Nino events and six strong El Nino events. It was found that there was high rainfall in La Nina events, whereas there was low rainfall in El Nino events. Also, we constructed the corresponding wind circulation and sea level pressure maps in order to better understand the mechanisms associated with this phenomenon that have affected rainfall variability over Thailand.
Keywords
Rainfall over Thailand, EOF, ENSO