Exploitation of the Gauribidanur array for seismic monitoring

The medium-aperture array at Gauribidanur is in continous operation since 1966. With the recent addition of a 12-bit 16-K computer its potential for the monitoring of underground explosions has improved considerably. The salient aspects of the monitoring system, the present and projected procedures for generation and dissemination of detection data and the long-term storage of data relevant to discrimination research are discussed. An attempt is also made to assess its detection efficiency in the light of the major features of site noise.     

Application of semi‐distributed hydrological model for basin level water balance of the Ken basin of Central India

In the present study, a semi‐distributed hydrological model soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) has been employed for the Ken basin of Central India to predict the water balance. The entire basin was divided into ten sub basins comprising 107 hydrological response units on the basis of unique slope, soil and land cover classes using SWAT model. Sensitivity analysis of SWAT model was performed to examine the critical input variables of the study area. For Ken basin, curve number, available water capacity, soil depth, soil evaporation compensation factor and threshold depth of water in the shallow aquifer (GWQ_MN) were found to be the most sensitive parameters. Yearly and monthly calibration (1985–1996) and validation (1997–2009) were performed using the observed discharge data of the Banda site in the Ken basin. Performance evaluation of the model was carried out using coefficient of determination, Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, root mean square error‐observations standard deviation ratio, percent bias and index of agreement criterion. It was found that SWAT model can be successfully applied for hydrological evaluation of the Ken basin, India. The water balance analysis was carried out to evaluate water balance of the Ken basin for 25 years (1985–2009). The water balance exhibited that the average annual rainfall in the Ken basin is about 1132 mm. In this, about 23% flows out as surface run‐off, 4% as groundwater flow and about 73% as evapotranspiration. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Establishment of lightning detection sensors network in India: generation of essential climate variable and characterization of cloud-to-ground lightning occurrences

Natural Hazards - A network of 25 lightning detection sensors (LDS) has been established by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). At present,...     

Long-term historic changes in climatic variables of Betwa Basin,India

In this study, trend analyses of historic past climatic variables were investigated for the Betwa basin located in Central India. In the serially independent climatic variables, Mann–Kendall test (MK test) was applied to the original sample data. However, in the serially correlated series, pre-whitening is used before employing the MK test. The long-term trend analysis showed several of the meteorological stations to exhibit a decreasing trend in annual and seasonal precipitation in the study area. Seasonal and yearly numbers of rainy days are decreased. However, onset of effective monsoon (except for Shivpuri and Tikamgarh stations) did not show any trend during the study period. For maximum temperature, five out of 12 stations showed a decreasing trend in monsoon season whereas almost all other stations showed an increasing trend in winter and no trend in summer season. For minimum temperature, only two stations of the basin showed a decreasing trend in monsoon and all other stations exhibited a significant increase in winter and summer season. The increase of winter temperature may adversely affect the growth of Rabi crop (wheat and mustard) in the study area. Potential evopotranspiration (PET) did not show any trend in monsoon, except for Jalaun and Jhansi stations, showing decreasing trends. Raisen and Vidisha stations showed an increasing trend in winter only, and the trend for other stations were random in nature. In summer, five out of 12 stations showed an increasing trend in PET. Results of this study can be employed in preparation of water resources development and management plan in the Betwa Basin.     

Hydrological simulation of the Betwa River basin (India) using the SWAT model

A seasonal water budget analysis was carried out to quantify various components of the hydrological cycle using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model for the Betwa River basin (43?500 km²) in central India. The model results were satisfactory in calibration and validation. The seasonal water budget analysis showed that about 90% of annual rainfall and 97% of annual runoff occurred in the monsoon season. A seasonal linear trend analysis was carried out to detect trends in the water balance components of the basin for the period 1973–2001. In the monsoon season, an increasing trend in rainfall and a decreasing trend in ET were observed; this resulted in an increasing trend in groundwater storage and surface runoff. The winter season followed almost the same pattern. A decreasing trend was observed in summer season rainfall. The study evokes the need for conservation structures in the study area to reduce monsoon runoff and conserve it for basin requirements in water-scarce seasons.

EDITOR Z.W. Kundzewicz

ASSOCIATE EDITOR F. Hattermann     

Evaluation of TRMM multi-satellite precipitation analysis (TMPA) against terrestrial measurement over a humid sub-tropical basin,India

To support the GPM mission which is homologous to its predecessor, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), this study has been undertaken to evaluate the accuracy of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission multi-satellite precipitation analysis (TMPA) daily-accumulated precipitation products for 5 years (2008–2012) using the statistical methods and contingency table method. The analysis was performed on daily, monthly, seasonal and yearly basis. The TMPA precipitation estimates were also evaluated for each grid point i.e. 0.25° × 0.25° and for 18 rain gauge stations of the Betwa River basin, India. Results indicated that TMPA precipitation overestimates the daily and monthly precipitation in general, particularly for the middle sub-basin in the non-monsoon season. Furthermore, precision of TMPA precipitation estimates declines with the decrease of altitude at both grid and sub-basin scale. The study also revealed that TMPA precipitation estimates provide better accuracy in the upstream of the basin compared to downstream basin. Nevertheless, the detection capability of daily TMPA precipitation improves with increase in altitude for drizzle rain events. However, the detection capability decreases during non-monsoon and monsoon seasons when capturing moderate and heavy rain events, respectively. The veracity of TMPA precipitation estimates was improved during the rainy season than during the dry season at all scenarios investigated. The analyses suggest that there is a need for better precipitation estimation algorithm and extensive accuracy verification against terrestrial precipitation measurement to capture the different types of rain events more reliably over the sub-humid tropical regions of India.