COMMENTS ON “AN APPARENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIMALAYAN SNOW COVER AND SUMMER MONSOON RAINFALL OVER INDIA”

The snow cover in central High Asia has been the focus of climatologists interests for many decades.Earlier studies indicate that Himalayan snow cover has a significant effect on Indian monsoon rainfall,but it has relied on very limited snow cover data.In this paper,three complete High Asian snow cover data sets are used.They consist of SMMR pentad snow depth maps covering the period 1978-1987,operational NOAA weekly snow cover extent charts during the period between 1966-1989,and daily snow depth records at 60 primary weather stations over the 36-year period of 1957-1992.Unpervasive feature,dearth of snow mass in the vast interior,and limited portion affected by substantial interannual variability reveal that the High Asian snow cover itself could not greatly influence the Indian monsoon rainfall.A simple approach of lead/lag relation between High Asian snow cover.Indian monsoon rainfall,and ENSO shows that snow cover is not a key variable influencing the Indian monsoon.Further correlation calculation demonstrated that only a weak signal was found between them.