Robust Forced Response in South Asian Summer Monsoon in a Future Climate

A robust response of South Asian summer monsoon precipitation to increasing greenhouse gas concentration during the twenty-first century is identified in 23 models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. The pattern of this response is dominated by two dipole structures, one oriented east–west across the Maritime Continent and another oriented north–south across the equatorial Indian Ocean, and is characterized by enhanced rainfall in South Asia and diminished rainfall over the Maritime Continent. The response is robust in the sense that the same pattern has a trend that is within one standard deviation of the trend of other models. Another robust feature is that the variability of precipitation about this trend decreases in all models, and hence becomes more detectable with time. The response is negligible compared to internal variability during the twentieth century but emerges clearly by the middle of the twenty-first century. Although the pattern as a whole is robust, the response over small land areas such as India has more uncertainty, with some models disagreeing even with the sign of the response.