Southern Indian Ocean SST indices as early predictors of Indian summer monsoon

70-76Four indices of quarterly mean sea surface temperature (SST) values extracted for Southern Indian Ocean (SIO) region for which the maximum correlation with All India Rainfall Index (AIRI) was found with a lag up to 7 seasons w.r.t. the onset of monsoon. The Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique has been used to study the predictability of the Indian summer monsoon with four indices individually as well as in various combinations. It has been found that two combinations of SST indices of SIO region, SIOI + ACCI and CSIOI + NWAI + SIOI + ACCI, show best predictive skill when used collectively. It has been found that the performance of the ANN model is better than the corresponding regression model in the prediction of ISMR indicating that the relationship between ISMR and SST indices are non-linear in nature