High temporal and spatial resolution observations of meso-scale features of pre- and mature summer monsoon cloud systems over Bangladesh

Meso-scale characteristics of disturbances that bring about atmospheric disasters in pre- and mature monsoon seasons in Bangladesh are analyzed. Several types of meteorological instruments capable of observations with high temporal and spatial resolutions were introduced for the first time in this area to capture the meso-scale structure of rainfall systems. We installed an automatic weather station (AWS) and several automatic raingauges (ARGs) and utilized the weather radar of Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). From the radar image in the summer of 2001 (16–18 July), a striking feature of the systematic diurnal variation in this area was elucidated. In these 3 days, the diurnal evolutions of convective activity were remarkably similar to each other, implying that this pattern can be understood as a typical response of local cloud systems to the diurnal variation of insolation under some summer monsoon situations. The ARG data show the difference in characteristics of rainfall between pre- and mature monsoon seasons. The short intense downpour tends to occur more frequently in the pre-monsoon season than in the mature monsoon season. The pre-monsoon rainfall also has clear diurnal variation with a peak that is more strongly concentrated in time. In the northern part the rainfall peak is found in between midnight and early morning, while it is observed in the daytime in central to western parts of the country. Two disaster cases caused by meso-scale disturbances are analyzed. Although they occurred in the same season, the structures of the cloud systems were largely different from each other. The disturbance brought about tornadoes on 14 April 2004, consisting of many spherical cloud systems of approximately 20 km size. On the other hand, another one that caused the tragic river water transport accident on 23 May 2004 had meso-scale rain band structure. The latter case was captured by the AWS located at Dhaka. Sudden changes in temperature, wind and pressure were observed clearly, showing the typical structure of convective rain bands.     

Probabilities of excess and deficient southwest monsoon rainfall over different meteorological sub-divisions of India

Temporal distribution of southwest monsoon (June –September) rainfall is very useful for the country’s agriculture and food grain production. It contributes more than 75% of India’s annual rainfall. In view of this, an attempt has been made here to understand the performance of the monthly rainfall for June, July, August and September when the seasonal rainfall is reported as excess, deficient or normal. To know the dependence of seasonal rainfall on monthly rainfall, the probabilities of occurrence of excess, deficient and normal monsoon when June, July, August and also June + July and August + September rainfall is reported to be excess or deficient, are worked out using the long homogenous series of 124 years (1871-–1994) data of monthly and seasonal rainfall of 29 meteorological sub-divisions of the plain regions of India. In excess monsoon years, the average percentage contribution of each monsoon month to the long term mean (1871–1994) seasonal rainfall (June –September) is more than that of the normal while in the deficient years it is less than normal. This is noticed in all 29 meteorological sub-divisions. From the probability analysis, it is seen that there is a rare possibility of occurrence of seasonal rainfall to be excess/deficient when the monthly rainfall of any month is deficient/excess.     

Relationship between northeast monsoon rainfall and near-surface atmospheric wind convergence over the North Indian Ocean using multisatellite data

The northeast monsoon rainfall (NEMR) contributes about 20–40 % of annual rainfall over the North Indian Ocean (NIO). In the present study, the relationship between the NEMR and near-surface atmospheric wind convergence (NSAWC) over the NIO is demonstrated using high-resolution multisatellite data. The rainfall product from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis and near-surface wind product from the Cross-Calibration Multi-Platform available at 0.25° × 0.25° spatial resolution are used for the study. Large-scale NSAWC and divergence maps over the tropical Indian Ocean are generated at monthly scale from the wind product for the period of 1988–2010. A preliminary analysis is carried out for two consecutive anomalous Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) years 2005 (negative) and 2006 (positive). The distinct spatial patterns of rainfall rate and NSAWC fields over the NIO clearly show the evolution of the anomalous IOD events in the south eastern equatorial Indian Ocean (EEIO). The spatially averaged time-series of pentad NSAWC over the south EEIO box suggests that the variability occurs in phase with rainfall rate during both the northeast monsoon years. Furthermore, the scatter plot between area-averaged pentad rainfall and convergence over the south EEIO box for the period of 1998–2010 shows statistically significant linear correlation which reveals that NSAWC plays a key role in regulating the NEMR.     

Hydrologic characteristics of floods in Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) delta

In the middle of 2007, a severe flood affected the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. This is a natural disaster that takes people’s lives, destroys livestock, infrastructures and communication systems and, damages crops and fish ponds. Despite many adverse impacts, the flood situation is an accepted phenomenon to the citizens of Bangladesh, due to the immense increase of soil fertility due to the flood, plus, the recharge of aquifer, ecosystem and fish. The flood of 2007 was the 5th major flood of the last 20 years when more than thirty-five percent of the area of the country was inundated with flood water. As in the past, the flood of 2007 had its own significance. The geography of the country contains a floodplain delta of three major river basins: the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna (GBM). The mean monthly rainfall plot from the TRMM satellite data has shown that for both the Meghna and Brahmaputra basins, the rainfall was higher during July 2007 than any other months of the last 2 years. This excess rainfall had accumulated in the Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers and carried downstream to Bangladesh. This was the main cause of the flooding in 2007. The first crossing above the danger level of the river waters was observed at Durgapur station of the Someswari and at Sunamganj station of the Surma on the nineteenth of July, 2007 inside Bangladesh. In terms of magnitude of the peak and duration of the flood, the Brahmaputra was higher in 2007 than during 2004. However, the Ganges river water level never crossed the danger level during flood of 2007. The Meghna was lower during the flood peak for the duration of the flood in 2007. The year–to-year variability in both the magnitude and duration of the flood suggests changes in rainfall and landuse pattern of the catchment.     

Summer monsoon rainfall scenario over Bangladesh using a high-resolution AGCM

Summer monsoon rainfall was simulated by a global 20 km-mesh atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM), focusing on the changes in the summer monsoon rainfall of Bangladesh. Calibration and validation of AGCM were performed over Bangladesh for generating summer monsoon rainfall scenarios. The model-produced summer monsoon rainfall was calibrated with a ground-based observational data in Bangladesh during the period 1979–2003. The TRMM 3B43 V6 data are also used for understanding the model performance. The AGCM output obtained through validation process made it confident to be used for near future and future summer monsoon rainfall projection in Bangladesh. In the present-day (1979–2003) climate simulations, the high-resolution AGCM produces the summer monsoon rainfall better as a spatial distribution over SAARC region in comparison with TRMM but magnitude may be different. Summer monsoon rainfall projection for Bangladesh was experimentally obtained for near future and future during the period 2015–2034 and 2075–2099, respectively. This work reveals that summer monsoon rainfall simulated by a high-resolution AGCM is not directly applicable to application purpose. However, acceptable performance was obtained in estimating summer monsoon rainfall over Bangladesh after calibration and validation. This study predicts that in near future, summer monsoon rainfall on an average may decrease about ?0.5 % during the period 2015–2034 and future summer monsoon rainfall may increase about 0.4 % during the period 2075–2099.     

Relative role of sea surface temperature and snow on Indian summer monsoon seasonal simulation using a GCM

Indian summer monsoon is a global scale phenomenon controlled by different land, ocean, and atmospheric parameters. Sea surface temperature (SST) and snow are two of the major parameters, which may alter the spatial and temporal patterns of circulation and rainfall during Indian summer monsoon. In the current paper, we study the monsoon variability using long integrations (20 years) of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) Spectral model at T80L18 resolution with observed and climatological SST and snow. Study shows response of IITD GCM in simulating the Indian summer monsoon rainfall and circulation relative to the snow and SST as boundary conditions. The model’s response to SST and snow is examined by conducting four types of experiments by varying observed and climatological values of snow and SST. This paper discusses the seasonal total rainfall for country as a whole and 850 and 200 hPa wind for the period of 20 years starting from 1985 to 2004. The model has been integrated in the ensemble mode with five different initial conditions from the last week of April and first week of May. The model is able to capture the climatological patterns of seasonal total rainfall and averaged wind at lower and upper levels. Observed snow in the presence of climatological SST as a boundary condition shows much impact on rainfall and circulation than observed SST in the presence of climatological snow. Model performance is good in simulating the normal and excess monsoon conditions; it shows poor skill in capturing deficit monsoon years.     

Simultaneous response of high-frequency geoacoustic emission and atmospheric electric field to strain of near-surface sedimentary rocks

During the period of October 1–18, 2009, 41 km southwest of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, in the intersection zone of tectonic faults of various orders, simultaneous recording of the geoacoustic emission, gradient of the atmospheric electric field’s potential, strains of the Earth’s surface, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, and rain intensity was made. It was found for the first time that anomalous disturbances of high-frequency geoacoustic emission and atmospheric electric field near the Earth’s surface originate as a simultaneous response to extension of near-surface sedimentary rocks. In the case of compression, only disturbances of geoacoustic emission occur. Anomalies were recorded under quiet weather conditions and with rocks strains being two orders greater than those of tidal ones.     

Simulation of a flood producing rainfall event of 29 July 2010 over north-west Pakistan using WRF-ARW model

Simulation of a flood producing rainfall event of 29 July 2010 over north-west Pakistan has been carried out using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. This extraordinary rainfall event was localized over north-west Pakistan and recorded 274 mm of rainfall at Peshawar (34.02°N, 71.58°E), within a span of 24 h on that eventful day where monthly July normal rainfall is only 46.1 mm. The WRF model was run with the triple-nested domains of 27, 9, and 3 km horizontal resolution using Kain–Fritsch cumulus parameterization scheme having YSU planetary boundary layer. The model performance was evaluated by examining the different simulated parameters. The model-derived rainfall was compared with Pakistan Meteorological Department–observed rainfall. The model suggested that this flood producing heavy rainfall event over north-west region of Pakistan might be the result of an interaction of active monsoon flow with upper air westerly trough (mid-latitude). The north-west Pakistan was the meeting point of the southeasterly flow from the Bay of Bengal following monsoon trough and southwesterly flow from the Arabian Sea which helped to transport high magnitude of moisture. The vertical profile of the humidity showed that moisture content was reached up to upper troposphere during their mature stage (monsoon system usually did not extent up to that level) like a narrow vertical column where high amounts of rainfall were recorded. The other favourable conditions were strong vertical wind shear, low-level convergence and upper level divergence, and strong vorticity field which demarked the area of heavy rainfall. The WRF model might be able to simulate the flood producing rainfall event over north-west Pakistan and associated dynamical features reasonably well, though there were some spatial and temporal biases in the simulated rainfall pattern.     

Anomalous behaviour of the Indian summer monsoon 2009

The Indian subcontinent witnessed a severe monsoon drought in the year 2009. India as a whole received 77% of its long period average during summer monsoon season (1 June to 30 September) of 2009, which is the third highest deficient all India monsoon season rainfall year during the period 1901–2009. Therefore, an attempt is made in this paper to study the characteristic features of summer monsoon rainfall of 2009 over the country and to investigate some of the possible causes behind the anomalous behaviour of the monsoon.     

Impact of vegetation on the simulation of seasonal monsoon rainfall over the Indian subcontinent using a regional model

The change in the type of vegetation fraction can induce major changes in the local effects such as local evaporation, surface radiation, etc., that in turn induces changes in the model simulated outputs. The present study deals with the effects of vegetation in climate modeling over the Indian region using the MM5 mesoscale model. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the impact of vegetation dataset derived from SPOT satellite by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) versus that of USGS (United States Geological Survey) vegetation dataset on the simulation of the Indian summer monsoon. The present study has been conducted for five monsoon seasons (1998–2002), giving emphasis over the two contrasting southwest monsoon seasons of 1998 (normal) and 2002 (deficient). The study reveals mixed results on the impact of vegetation datasets generated by ISRO and USGS on the simulations of the monsoon. Results indicate that the ISRO data has a positive impact on the simulations of the monsoon over northeastern India and along the western coast. The MM5-USGS has greater tendency of overestimation of rainfall. It has higher standard deviation indicating that it induces a dispersive effect on the rainfall simulation. Among the five years of study, it is seen that the RMSE of July and JJAS (June–July–August–September) for All India Rainfall is mostly lower for MM5-ISRO. Also, the bias of July and JJAS rainfall is mostly closer to unity for MM5-ISRO. The wind fields at 850 hPa and 200 hPa are also better simulated by MM5 using ISRO vegetation. The synoptic features like Somali jet and Tibetan anticyclone are simulated closer to the verification analysis by ISRO vegetation. The 2 m air temperature is also better simulated by ISRO vegetation over the northeastern India, showing greater spatial variability over the region. However, the JJAS total rainfall over north India and Deccan coast is better simulated using the USGS vegetation. Sensible heat flux over north-west India is also better simulated by MM5-USGS.     

Energetics of lower tropospheric ultra-long waves: A key to intra-seasonal variability of Indian monsoon

Analysis of fifty four (1951–2004) years of daily energetics of zonal waves derived from NCEP/NCAR wind (u and υ) data and daily rainfall received over the Indian landmass (real time data) during southwest monsoon season (1 June–30 September) indicate that energetics (momentum transport and kinetic energy) of lower tropospheric ultra-long waves (waves 1 and 2) of low latitudes hold a key to intra-seasonal variability of monsoon rainfall over India. Correlation coefficient between climatology of daily (122 days) energetics of ultra-long waves and climatology of daily rainfall over Indian landmass is 0.9. The relation is not only significant but also has a predictive potential. The normalised plot of both the series clearly indicates that the response period of rainfall to the energetics is of 5–10 days during the onset phase and 4–7 days during the withdrawal phase of monsoon over India. During the established phase of monsoon, both the series move hand-in-hand. Normalised plot of energetics of ultra-long waves and rainfall for individual year do not show marked deviation with respect to climatology. These results are first of its kind and are useful for the short range forecast of rainfall over India.     

Rainfall over Oman and its teleconnection with El Niño Southern Oscillation

The Sultanate of Oman is located in the south-eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula and covers the larger part of the southern coasts of the Arabian Peninsula in both arid and semi-arid environments except for the southern part which is swept by the monsoon affecting the Arabian Sea during the period from June to September. The summer rainfall over Oman shows year-to-year variability, and this is caused by oceanic and atmospheric influences. In the present study, we tried to explore the influence of El Niño on the rainfall over Oman using different data sets. The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) technique employed to the zonal wind at 850 hPa for the 30-year period shows that the second and third modes of EOF are showing high variability over the Oman regions. The corresponding PCs were subjected to FFT analysis, and it showed a peak about 5–6 years. In addition to this, the zonal wind over the Oman regions is correlated with the global zonal wind and found a significant correlation (1 % significant level). It has already been proved that the wind and rainfall during summer monsoon is in phase. Moreover, the spectral analysis of rainfall at Masirah station and the Niño3.4 index show the similar mode of variability indicating a direct relationship. The correlation between rainfall and the Niño3.4 index is also showing a positive significant value, and therefore, it can be concluded that the El Niño in the Pacific favours rainfall over the Oman region.     

Track prediction of very severe cyclone ‘Nargis’ using high resolution weather research forecasting (WRF) model

The recent very severe cyclonic storm (VSCS) ‘Nargis’ over the Bay of Bengal caused widespread destruction over Myanmar after hitting the coast on 2 May 2008. The real time forecasting of the VSCS ‘Nargis’ was a very difficult task as it did not follow the normal westerly/northwesterly track. In the present study, a detailed diagnostic analysis of the system ‘Nargis’ is carried out initially to investigate the features associated with this unusual movement and subsequently the real time forecast of VSCS ‘Nargis’ using high resolution advanced version weather research forecasting (WRF) model is presented. The advanced research WRF model was run for 72 h at 27 km and 20 km resolutions with 28, 29, 30 April and 1 May as the initial conditions. The diagnostic study indicates that the recurvature of the system ‘Nargis’ was mainly associated with:

中国瓦里关和上甸子大气温室气体浓度变化特征

研究典型区域大气温室气体的变化有助于有效应对气候变化、减缓全球变暖和减少极端气候事件.选取1997-2018年瓦里关和2009-2015年上甸子温室气体月值数据,应用线性趋势分析法和Mann-Kendall突变检验法分析两站温室气体的时间序列特征、季节变化趋势,构建HYSPLIT后向轨迹模型分析季风运输和大气边界层条件对温室气体的潜在影响.瓦里关和上甸子温室气体均逐年增长,具有明显的季节变化特征.两站CO₂均在8月达到最低值,CH₄则在8月达到峰值,SF₆四季差异不大.瓦里关N₂O在12月达到最高,6月降到最低;而上甸子N₂O在7月达到峰值,9月降至最低.瓦里关和上甸子大气温室气体均受到局地生物源和非生物源、季风远距离运输、大气边界层条件和光化学过程等多种因素的共同作用.      

Spatio-temporal variability of summer monsoon rainfall over Orissa in relation to low pressure systems

The summer monsoon rainfall over Orissa occurs mostly due to low pressure systems (LPS) developing over the Bay of Bengal and moving along the monsoon trough. A study is hence undertaken to find out characteristic features of the relationship between LPS over different regions and rain-fall over Orissa during the summer monsoon season (June-September). For this purpose, rainfall and rainy days over 31 selected stations in Orissa and LPS days over Orissa and adjoining land and sea regions during different monsoon months and the season as a whole over a period of 20 years (1980-1999) are analysed. The principal objective of this study is to find out the role of LPS on spatial and temporal variability of summer monsoon rainfall over Orissa. The rainfall has been significantly less than normal over most parts of Orissa except the eastern side of Eastern Ghats during July and hence during the season as a whole due to a significantly less number of LPS days over northwest Bay in July over the period of 1980-1999. The seasonal rainfall shows higher interannual variation (increase in coefficient of variation by about 5%) during 1980-1999 than that during 1901-1990 over most parts of Orissa except northeast Orissa. Most parts of Orissa, especially the region extending from central part of coastal Orissa to western Orissa (central zone) and western side of the Eastern Ghats get more seasonal monsoon rainfall with the development and persistence of LPS over northwest Bay and their subsequent movement and persistence over Orissa. The north Orissa adjoining central zone also gets more seasonal rainfall with development and persistence of LPS over northwest Bay. While the seasonal rainfall over the western side of the Eastern Ghats is adversely affected due to increase in LPS days over west central Bay, Jharkhand and Bangladesh, that over the eastern side of the Eastern Ghats is adversely affected due to increase in LPS days over all the regions to the north of Orissa. There are significant decreasing trends in rainfall and number of rainy days over some parts of southwest Orissa during June and decreasing trends in rainy days over some parts of north interior Orissa and central part of coastal Orissa during July over the period of 1980-1999     

Research on catastrophic rock avalanche at Guanling, Guizhou, China

On June 28, 2010, a catastrophic rock avalanche occurred after an extreme rainstorm at Guanling with N 25°59′10′′ in latitude and E 105°16′50′′ in longitude, Guizhou, China. This rock avalanche has a long run-out distance of 1.5 km, with 1.75 million cubic meters of debris instantly burying two villages and resulting in 99 deaths. It originated in the coal measure strata, with the upper part of limestone and dolomite, the middle part of the sandstone with gentle inclination, and the lower part of shale and mudstone, together locally with coals. This kind of unique structure, with hard resistant caprock overlying softer ductile rocks, coupled with the central outflow region at the contact zone, has catastrophic potential for rock avalanches and creates challenges for engineering geological/hydrogeological analysis. The topography showed that the hillside slopes were steeper at the upper portion but gentler in the lower portion, looked like the shape of a “boot.” The upper steep landform easily led to slope instability due to its high static shear stresses, and the wide middle and lower parts provided kinematic conditions for long run-out. Transformation of the larger potential energy into kinetic energy contributed to the formation of a rapid long run-out rock avalanche. The rainfall from June 27 to 28 was the apparent trigger of this catastrophic avalanche. The measured rainfall of more than 310 mm within 24 h exceeded the local historical records that were recorded over the last 60 years. The pore pressure on discontinuities of sandstone had an effect on the slope stability. The valley runoff supplied a saturated base for the long run-out debris, inducing an additional increase of the terminus distance and the increased velocity of the avalanche movement.     

A numerical study of sea breeze circulation observed at a tropical site Kalpakkam on the east coast of India, under different synoptic flow situations

A simulation study of the sea breeze circulation and thermal internal boundary layer (TIBL) characteristics has been carried out at the tropical site Kalpakkam on the east coast of India, for operational atmospheric dispersion prediction. The community based PSU/NCAR MM5 Meso-scale meteorological model is used for the study. Three cases on typical days in summer (24 May 2003), southwest (SW) monsoon (1 July 2001) winter season (2 February 2003) with different large-scale flow pattern are studied. The MM5 model is used with 3 nested domains with horizontal grid resolutions 18 km, 6 km and 2 km and 26 vertical levels. The model is integrated for 24 hours in the above cases with initial and boundary conditions taken from NCEP-FNL analyses data. Observations of 10 meteorological stations and coastal boundary layer experiments conducted at Kalpakkam are used for comparison and validation of the simulation. The characteristics of simulated sea breeze and TIBL at Kalpakkam are seen to vary in the above cases according to the prevailing large-scale winds and surface fluxes. The sea breeze circulation is seen to develop early with larger strength and inland propagation in the summer case under the influence of moderate synoptic wind and strong heating conditions than in the SW monsoon and winter cases. The horizontal and vertical extents of TIBL are found to be larger in the summer case than in other cases. Although model parameters agree in general with observations, all the fine features are not clearly captured and some slowness in model sea breeze development is also seen. The results indicate the need to improve i) the initial conditions by assimilation of available surface/upper air observations to reduce model bias and ii) surface net radiation parameterisation. The model could predict the essential features of the local circulation and further improvement is expected with better initial condition data and incorporation of more realistic surface data.     

Changes in summer monsoon precipitation over Hunan Province during 1952–2007: response to the west Pacific sea surface temperature and global warming

Using a historical database (1952–2007) of sea surface temperature (SST) from a subtropical high-controlled area (110°E–140°E, 15°N–35°N) of the west Pacific Ocean and the precipitation over Hunan Province of southeast China, we analyzed time series variations of precipitation in relation to the East Asian summer monsoon and a global warming setting. The results show that there has been a significant increase in SST of the subtropical high-controlled area in the recent 50 years. Although the increase in annual summer monsoon precipitation during the same period has been subtle over Hunan province, seasonal rainfall distribution has obviously changed, represented by a reduction in May, but a significant increase through June to August, especially in July. We suggest that the mechanism of seasonal redistribution of monsoon precipitation is primarily due to the increasing SST that delays the intrusion of the west Pacific Subtropical High, therefore leading to a postponing of migration of the East Asian summer monsoon rainfall belt inland and northward.     

Summer monsoon intraseasonal oscillation over eastern Arabian sea — As revealed by TRMM microwave imager products

The time evolution of atmospheric parameters on intraseasonal time scale in the eastern Arabian Sea (EAS) is studied during the summer monsoon seasons of 1998–2003 using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager (TMI) data. This is done using the spectral and wavelet analysis. Analysis shows that over EAS, total precipitable water vapour (TWV) and sea surface wind speed (SWS) have a periodicity of 8–15 days, 15–30 days and 30–60 days during the monsoon season. Significant power is seen in the 8–15-day time scale in TWV during onset and retreat of the summer monsoon. Analysis indicates that the timings of the intensification of 8–15, 15–30, and 30–60 days oscillations have a profound effect on the evolution of the daily rainfall over west coast of India. The positive and negative phases of these oscillations are directly related to the active and dry spells of rainfall along the west coast of India. The spectral analysis shows interannual variation of TWV and SWS. Heavy rainfall events generally occur over the west coast of India when positive phases of both 30–60 days and 15–30 days modes of TWV and SWS are simultaneously present.     

Sea-breeze-initiated rainfall over the east coast of India during the Indian southwest monsoon

Sea-breeze-initiated convection and precipitation have been investigated along the east coast of India during the Indian southwest monsoon season. Sea-breeze circulation was observed on approximately 70–80% of days during the summer months (June–August) along the Chennai coast. Average sea-breeze wind speeds are greater at rural locations than in the urban region of Chennai. Sea-breeze circulation was shown to be the dominant mechanism initiating rainfall during the Indian southwest monsoon season. Approximately 80% of the total rainfall observed during the southwest monsoon over Chennai is directly related to convection initiated by sea-breeze circulation.