Access

Letter

Nature Geoscience 1, 515–519 (1 August 2008) | doi:10.1038/ngeo248

Monsoons as eddy-mediated regime transitions of the tropical overturning circulation

Simona Bordoni & Tapio Schneider

Monsoons are generally viewed as planetary-scale sea-breeze circulations, caused by contrasts in the thermal properties between oceans and land surfaces that lead to thermal contrasts upon radiative heating. But the radiative heating evolves gradually with the seasons, whereas the onset of monsoon precipitation, and the associated circulation changes such as reversal of surface winds, occur rapidly.