Impact of river runoff into the ocean on Indian summer monsoon

Vinayachandran, PN and Jahfer, S and Nanjundiah, RS (2015) Impact of river runoff into the ocean on Indian summer monsoon. In: ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 10 (5).

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Abstract

Rivers of the world discharge about 36000 km 3 of freshwater into the ocean every year. To investigate the impact of river discharge on climate, we have carried out two 100 year simulations using the Community Climate System Model (CCSM3), one including the river runoff into the ocean and the other excluding it. When the river discharge is shut off, global average sea surface temperature (SST) rises by about 0.5 degrees C and the Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) increases by about 10% of the seasonal total with large increase in the eastern Bay of Bengal and along the west coast of India. In addition, the frequency of occurrence of La Nina-like cooling events in the equatorial Pacific increases and the correlation between ISMR and Pacific SST anomalies become stronger. The teleconnection between the SST anomalies in the Pacific and monsoon is effected via upper tropospheric meridional temperature gradient and the North African-Asian Jet axis.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Publisher:	IOP PUBLISHING LTD
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the IOP PUBLISHING LTD, TEMPLE CIRCUS, TEMPLE WAY, BRISTOL BS1 6BE, ENGLAND
Keywords:	Monsoon; river runoff; ocean salinty; coupled model; El Nino
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Divecha Centre for Climate Change Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
Date Deposited:	26 Jun 2015 07:10
Last Modified:	26 Jun 2015 07:10
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/51779

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