CHARACTERISTICS OF 10-DAY MEAN SURFACE SENSIBLE HEAT FLUX VARIATIONS IN THE SCS MONSOON REGION AND POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS WITH THE SCS SUMMER MONSOON ONSET^*

The time and space variations of the ten-day mean surface sensible heat flux have been analyzed in this paper based on the data of NCEP/NCAR from January of 1979 to December of 1995 in the South China Sea (SCS) monsoon region.It is found that large variations of the surface sensible heat flux standard deviations exist in the northwestern Indochina Peninsula and the Indian Peninsula regions,and their locations and strength change significantly during the onset period of SCS monsoon.The negative deviations appear evidently earlier in the Indocbina Peninsula than in the Indian Peninsula but the deviation strength in the Indian Peninsula is stronger than that in the Indochina Peninsula.The appearance of the zonal negative mean deviations in the southern part of the Indochina Peninsula corresponds to the date of the SCS summer monsoon onset,while the occurrence of the deviation decrease corresponds to the date of the South Asian monsoon onset.The sensible heat flux increases dekad by dekad before the onset of the summer monsoon in the Indian Peninsula and the Indochina Peninsula and decreases after the monsoon onset.Therefore,the surface sensible heat flux changes in the Indochina and the Indian Peninsula regions maybe have some connections with the SCS monsoon onset and the Indian monsoon onset,and the Indochina Peninsula maybe becomes the sensitive or key region to the SCS monsoon onset and the land maybe plays an important role in triggering summer monsoon onset.