The paper by Wang and LinHo (2002) addresses the lack of consensus in the monsoon research community regarding a unified definition of the monsoon rainy season and the linkage between the onsets over the Asian continent and adjacent oceans. They propose a single rainfall parameter and a suite of universal criteria to define the domain, onset, peak, and withdrawal of the rainy season. These criteria reveal a cohesive spatial-temporal structure of the Asian-Pacific monsoon rainy season, facilitating the validation of monsoon hydrological cycles simulated by climate models and enhancing our understanding of monsoon dynamics. The large-scale onset of the Asian monsoon rainy season consists of two phases. The first phase begins with rainfall surges over the South China Sea in mid-May, establishing a planetary-scale monsoon rainband extending from the south Asian marginal seas to the subtropical western North Pacific. The rainband then advances northwestward, initiating the Indian rainy season, the Chinese mei-yu, and the Japanese bau in early to mid-June (the second phase). The peak of the rainy season occurs in three stepwise phases: late June over the mei-yu/bau regions and the southern Philippines, late July over India and northern China, and late August over the tropical WNP. The rainy season retreats northward over east Asia and southward over the Indian and WNP regions. The study highlights clear distinctions in the characteristics of the rainy season among the Indian, east Asian, and WNP summer monsoon regions, yet also shows close linkages between these subsystems. The causes of regional distinctions and linkages are discussed, along with atypical monsoon rainy seasons, such as skewed and bimodal seasonal distributions found in various regions of the Asian monsoon domain. The paper emphasizes the importance of rainfall characteristics in defining monsoons and provides a useful validation tool for diagnosing general circulation models. The results suggest that the continental and oceanic monsoons consist of integrated monsoon hydrological cycles, and the proposed definitions of monsoon domain, onset, peak, and withdrawal can be used to better understand and simulate the Asian-Pacific summer monsoon.The paper by Wang and LinHo (2002) addresses the lack of consensus in the monsoon research community regarding a unified definition of the monsoon rainy season and the linkage between the onsets over the Asian continent and adjacent oceans. They propose a single rainfall parameter and a suite of universal criteria to define the domain, onset, peak, and withdrawal of the rainy season. These criteria reveal a cohesive spatial-temporal structure of the Asian-Pacific monsoon rainy season, facilitating the validation of monsoon hydrological cycles simulated by climate models and enhancing our understanding of monsoon dynamics. The large-scale onset of the Asian monsoon rainy season consists of two phases. The first phase begins with rainfall surges over the South China Sea in mid-May, establishing a planetary-scale monsoon rainband extending from the south Asian marginal seas to the subtropical western North Pacific. The rainband then advances northwestward, initiating the Indian rainy season, the Chinese mei-yu, and the Japanese bau in early to mid-June (the second phase). The peak of the rainy season occurs in three stepwise phases: late June over the mei-yu/bau regions and the southern Philippines, late July over India and northern China, and late August over the tropical WNP. The rainy season retreats northward over east Asia and southward over the Indian and WNP regions. The study highlights clear distinctions in the characteristics of the rainy season among the Indian, east Asian, and WNP summer monsoon regions, yet also shows close linkages between these subsystems. The causes of regional distinctions and linkages are discussed, along with atypical monsoon rainy seasons, such as skewed and bimodal seasonal distributions found in various regions of the Asian monsoon domain. The paper emphasizes the importance of rainfall characteristics in defining monsoons and provides a useful validation tool for diagnosing general circulation models. The results suggest that the continental and oceanic monsoons consist of integrated monsoon hydrological cycles, and the proposed definitions of monsoon domain, onset, peak, and withdrawal can be used to better understand and simulate the Asian-Pacific summer monsoon.