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Simulated projection of ISMR over Indian Himalayan region: assessment from CSIRO-CORDEX South Asia experiments

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Abstract

In view of a significant lacuna in the Himalaya-specific knowledge of forthcoming expected changes in the rainfall climatology, this study attempts to assess the expected changes in the Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) pattern exclusively over the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) during 2020–2070 in comparison to a baseline period of 1970–2005 under two different warming scenarios, i.e., representative concentration pathways 4.5 and 8.5 (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). Five climate model products from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization initiated Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment of World Climate Research Programme over south Asia region are used for this purpose. Among the several different features of ISMR, this study attempts to investigate expected changes in the average summer monsoon rainfall and percent monthly rainfall to the total monsoon seasonal rainfall using multimodel averages. Furthermore, this study attempts to identify the topographical ranges which are expected to be mostly affected by the changing average monsoon seasonal rainfall over IHR. Results from the multimodel average analysis indicate that the rainfall climatology is expected to increase by >0.75 mm/day over the foothills of northwest Himalaya during 2020–2070, whereas the rainfall climatology is expected to decrease for the flood plains of Brahmaputra under a warmer climate. The monthly percent rainfall of June is expected to rise by more than 1% over the northwestern Himalaya during 2020–2040 (although insignificant at p value <0.05), whereas the same for August and September is expected to decrease over the eastern Himalaya under a warmer climate. In terms of rainfall changes along the altitudinal gradient, this study indicates that the two significant rainfall regions, one at around 900 m and the other around 2000 m of the northwestern Himalaya are expected to see positive changes (>1%) in rainfall climatology during 2020–2070, whereas regions more than 1500 m in eastern Himalaya are expected to experience inconsistent variation in rainfall climatology under a warmer climate scenario.

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Acknowledgements

This work is funded by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, under National Mission on Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem (Task Force 3). The World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Regional Climate, and the Working Group on Coupled Modelling, former coordinating body of CORDEX and responsible panel for CMIP5 are gratefully acknowledged. The CSIRO, Australia, climate modeling group is sincerely thanked for producing and making available their model output. The authors thank the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) infrastructure and the Climate Data Portal hosted at the Centre for Climate Change Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India for providing CORDEX South Asia data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora, Uttarakhand, 263 643, India

    Sandipan Mukherjee, Kireet Kumar, Shyamal K. Nandi & Pitamber P. Dhyani

  2. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune, Maharashtra, 411008, India

    Anupam Hazra

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  1. Sandipan Mukherjee
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  2. Anupam Hazra
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  3. Kireet Kumar
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  4. Shyamal K. Nandi
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  5. Pitamber P. Dhyani
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Correspondence to Sandipan Mukherjee.

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Responsible Editor: J. T. Fasullo.

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Mukherjee, S., Hazra, A., Kumar, K. et al. Simulated projection of ISMR over Indian Himalayan region: assessment from CSIRO-CORDEX South Asia experiments. Meteorol Atmos Phys 131, 63–79 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-017-0547-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-017-0547-4

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