q 2000 American Meteorological Society The Global Monsoon as Seen through the Divergent Atmospheric Circulation

A comprehensive description is given of the global monsoon as seen through the large-scale overturning in the atmosphere that changes with the seasons, and it provides a basis for delimiting the monsoon regions of the world. The analysis focuses on the mean annual cycle of the divergent winds and associated vertical motions, as given by the monthly mean fields for 1979–93 reanalyses from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which are able to reproduce the dominant modes. A complex empirical orthogonal function analysis of the divergent circulation brings out two dominant modes with essentially the same vertical structures in all months of the year. The first mode, which depicts the global monsoon, has a simple vertical structure with a maximum in vertical motion at about 400 mb, divergence in the upper troposphere that is strongest at 150 mb and decays to zero amplitude above 70 mb, and convergence in the lower troposphere with a maximum at 925 mb (ECMWF) or 850 mb (NCEP). However, this mode has a rich three-dimensional spatial structure that evolves with the seasons. It accounts for 60 % of the annual cycle variance of the divergent mass circulation and dominates the Hadley circulation as well as three overturning transverse cells. These include the Pacific Walker circulation; an Americas–Atlantic Walker circulation, both of which comprise rising motion i