Rainfall Variability over Thailand Related to the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
Sarinya Kirtphaiboon1,4, Prungchan Wongwises1,4, Atsamon Limsakul2, Sirapong Sooktawee2
and Usa Humphries3,*
1The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 10140, Bangkok, Thailand
2Environmental Research and Training Center, Department of Environmental Quality Promotion, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, 12120, Pathum Thani, Thailand. E-mails:
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3Department of Mathematics, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 10140, Bangkok, Thailand.
4Center for Energy Technology and Environment, Ministry of Education, Thailand
*Corresponding author:
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Tel.: +66-2470-081-32
Abstract: This study analyzed the monthly rainfall data of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) over Thailand, covering the period of 1971 to 2010 using the Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) technique. The most dominant mode accounts for 21.6% of the total variance. The next part was a study of the relationship with ENSO using smoothed anomalies between the Nino 3.4 index and the principal component time series.It was found that the Nino 3.4 SST index leads the rainfall anomalies by 4 months. This study used ENSO events divided into weak and strong intensity classes. It was based on composites of fourteen weak La Nina events, six strong La Nina events, twelve weak El Nino events and six strong El Nino events. It was found that there was high rainfall in La Nina events, whereas there was low rainfall in El Nino events. Also, we constructed the corresponding wind circulation and sea level pressure maps in order to better understand the mechanisms associated with this phenomenon that have affected rainfall variability over Thailand.
Keywords: Rainfall over Thailand, EOF, ENSO.
Journal of Sustainable Energy & Environment 5 (2014) 37-42
