The composite intraseasonal (20-90 day bandpass filtered) 850 hPa winds (m/s) and rainfall (shaded; mm/day) from (a), (c) observations and (b), (d) model simulation at 10km grid spacing.

This project involves the creation of a first of its kind regionally coupled ocean atmosphere model at 10km grid resolution of the Indian summer monsoon. The merit of this endeavor is several-fold: 1) The unprecedented resolution of 10km for seasonal hindcasts would resolve the topography and the coastlines necessitated by the steep gradients of the western and the eastern Ghats, the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau and the irregular coastline of peninsular India, which will have the potential to improve the diurnal variations 3) There is growing evidence to suggest that coupled air-sea interactions at short spatio-temporal scales has an impact on synoptic, intra-seasonal and seasonal summer monsoon, 4) There is evidence to suggest from other such downscaling endeavors with regionally coupled ocean-atmosphere model that there is an ocean rectification effect on the seasonal climate due to better resolution of oceanic features (e.g. surface currents, eddies, coastal upwelling).

For more information, contact Vasu Misra, principal investigator.