Tesna Maria, Ajil Kottayil, Prince Xavier, Viju O. John
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
The west coast of India has recently been experiencing torrential monsoon rains, a trend that studies indicate is likely to continue under future warming scenarios. This study investigates the link between moisture flux and extreme rainfall over the west coast, using observational and reanalysis datasets for the monsoon seasons (June to September) from 1990 to 2023. The analysis shows that, over the Indian subcontinent, rainfall along the west coast is primarily influenced by large-scale moisture flux from the Arabian Sea. By decomposing the vertically integrated moisture flux into dynamic and thermodynamic components, this study observes that the thermodynamic component of moisture flux exhibits an increasing trend over the southwest coast, while this increasing trend is more prominent for the dynamic component over the northwest coast. Extreme rainfall over the southwest coast is increasing at a rate of 0.23 mm per season, attributed primarily to the increase in the thermodynamic component of moisture flux. It is observed that the rate of sea surface temperature (SST) increase over the Arabian Sea is faster than over the Bay of Bengal, with the average SST over the southeast Arabian Sea exceeding 28°C in recent years. Observations indicate that warming over the southeast Arabian Sea is strongly coupled with moisture accumulation observed over the southwest coast. This study provides strong evidence of a link between moisture transport, extreme rainfall and SST, identifying the southwest coast as a region vulnerable to climate change. Over the northwest coast, the incidence of extreme rainfall is associated with the strengthening of dynamic processes, and the mean monsoon rainfall in this region is increasing in alignment with the rising dynamic component of moisture flux.
期刊介绍:
The International Journal of Climatology aims to span the well established but rapidly growing field of climatology, through the publication of research papers, short communications, major reviews of progress and reviews of new books and reports in the area of climate science. The Journal’s main role is to stimulate and report research in climatology, from the expansive fields of the atmospheric, biophysical, engineering and social sciences. Coverage includes: Climate system science; Local to global scale climate observations and modelling; Seasonal to interannual climate prediction; Climatic variability and climate change; Synoptic, dynamic and urban climatology, hydroclimatology, human bioclimatology, ecoclimatology, dendroclimatology, palaeoclimatology, marine climatology and atmosphere-ocean interactions; Application of climatological knowledge to environmental assessment and management and economic production; Climate and society interactions