2013/01/01 by Mathew Koll Roxy, Kapoor Ritika, Pascal Terray +11 · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Agricultural Productivity and Crop Improvement #Animal Nutrition and Health #Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics #Artificial intelligence #Biology #Biotechnology #Botany #Climate change #Climate variability and models #Climatology #Computer science #East Asian Monsoon #Ecology #Environmental science #Food Industry and Aquatic Biology #Foothills #Fusarium #General Circulation Model #Geography #Geology #Global warming #Hadley cell #Indian subcontinent #Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations #Microbiology #Monsoon #Monsoon of South Asia #Oceanography #Perspective (graphical) #Sea surface temperature #Tropics #Walker circulation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms8423
published in Политематический сетевой электронный научный журнал Кубанского государственного аграрного университета 6(85), 7423 (Nature Portfolio)
openalex publication_date 2013/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
There are large uncertainties looming over the status and fate of the South Asian summer monsoon, with several studies debating whether the monsoon is weakening or strengthening in a changing climate. Our analysis using multiple observed datasets demonstrates a significant weakening trend in summer rainfall during 1901-2012 over the central-east and northern regions of India, along the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basins and the Himalayan foothills, where agriculture is still largely rain-fed. Earlier studies have suggested an increase in moisture availability and land-sea thermal gradient in the tropics due to anthropogenic warming, favouring an increase in tropical rainfall. Here we show that the land-sea thermal gradient over South Asia has been decreasing, due to rapid warming in the Indian Ocean and a relatively subdued warming over the subcontinent. Using long-term observations and coupled model experiments, we provide compelling evidence that the enhanced Indian Ocean warming potentially weakens the land-sea thermal contrast, dampens the summer monsoon Hadley circulation, and thereby reduces the rainfall over parts of South Asia.