Converging winds enhance convective activity and increase moisture in the atmosphere through evaporation, which eventually increase regional precipitation. Thus a concurrent relationship exist between atmospheric wind convergence and rainfall. Hence, it becomes important to assess the strength and location of atmospheric wind convergence. Tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) has large-scale convergence zones which plays an important role in regulating moisture and modulating rainfall over Indian land and oceanic regions. In this study, an attempt is made to assess the relationship between precipitation and near-surface divergence/convergence of wind and identify such regions with strong association of these parameters over TIO. The correlation coefficient observed for the month of June, July, August and September are 0.62, 0.63, 0.57 and 0.69, respectively for Equatorial Indian Ocean (EIO) box. Similarly, a correlation coefficient of 0.61, 0.86, 0.46 and 0.68 was observed for the month of June, July, August and September over Arabian sea (AS) region. From this analysis, it can be observed that EIO shows consistent and stable correlation between wind convergence and surface rainfall during the summer monsoon months.

Key words: Precipitation, wind convergence, tropical Indian ocean, summer monsoon.
 

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