http://hdl.handle.net/2005/28 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 03:05:51 GMT 2013-04-30T03:05:51Z http://hdl.handle.net/2005/1658 Title: Difference In Land-Ocean Response And The Regional Impact Of Geo-Engineering Authors: Nag, Bappaditya Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2005/1658 2012-04-22T18:30:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2005/980 Title: Fine-Scale Structure Of Diurnal Variations Of Indian Monsoon Rainfall : Observational Analysis And Numerical Modeling Authors: Sahany, Sandeep Abstract: In the current study, we have presented a systematic analysis of the diurnal cycle of rainfall over the Indian region using satellite observations, and evaluated the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) to simulate some of the salient features of the observed diurnal characteristics of rainfall. Using high resolution simulations, we also investigate the underlying mechanisms of some of the observed diurnal signatures of rainfall. Using the Tropical Rain-fall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3-hourly, 0.25 ×0.25 degree 3B42 rainfall product for nine years (1999-2007), we extract the finer spatial structure of the diurnal scale signature of Indian summer monsoon rainfall. Using harmonic analysis, we construct a signal corresponding to diurnal and sub-diurnal variability. Subsequently, the 3-hourly time-period or the octet of rain-fall peak for this filtered signal, referred to as the “peak octet,” is estimated with care taken to eliminate spurious peaks arising out of Gibbs oscillations. Our analysis suggests that over the Bay of Bengal, there are three distinct modes of the peak octet of diurnal rainfall corresponding to 1130, 1430 and 1730 IST, from north central to south Bay. This finding could be seen to be consistent with southward propagation of the diurnal rainfall pattern reported by earlier studies. Over the Arabian sea, there is a spatially coherent pattern in the mode of the peak octet (1430 IST), in a region where it rains for more than 30% of the time. In the equatorial Indian Ocean, while most of the western part shows a late night/early morning peak, the eastern part does not show a spatially coherent pattern in the mode of the peak octet, owing to the occurrence of a dual maxima (early morning and early/late afternoon). The Himalayan foothills were found to have a mode of peak octet corresponding to 0230 IST, whereas over the Burmese mountains and the Western Ghats (west coast of India) the rainfall peaks during late afternoon/early evening (1430-1730 IST). This implies that the phase of the diurnal cycle over inland orography (e.g., Himalayas) is significantly different from coastal orography (e.g., Western Ghats). We also find that over the Gangetic plains, the peak octet is around 1430 IST, a few hours earlier compared to the typical early evening maxima over land. The second part of our study involves evaluating the ability of the Weather Research and Fore-casting Model (WRF) to simulate the observed diurnal rainfall characteristics. It also includes conducting high resolution simulations to explore the underlying physical mechanisms of the observed diurnal signatures of rainfall. The model (at 54km resolution) is integrated for the month of July 2006 since this period was particularly favourable for the study of diurnal cycle. We first evaluate the sensitivity of the model to the prescribed sea surface temperature (SST) by using two different SST datasets, namely Final Analyses (FNL) and Real-time Global (RTG). The overall performance of RTG SST was found to be better than FNL, and hence it was used for further model simulations. Next, we investigated the impact of different parameterisations (convective, microphysical, boundary layer, radiation and land surface) on the simulation of diurnal cycle of rainfall. Following this sensitivity study, we identified the suite of physical parameterisations in the model that “best” reproduces the observed diurnal characteristics of Indian monsoon rainfall. The “best” model configuration was used to conduct two nested simulations with one-way, three-level nesting (54-18-6km) over central India and Bay of Bengal. While the 54km and 18km simulations were conducted for July 2006, the 6km simulation was carried out for the period 18-24 July 2006. This period was chosen for our study since it is composed of an active period (19-21 July 2006), followed by a break period (22-24 July 2006). At 6km grid-spacing the model is able to realistically simulate the active and break phases in rainfall. During the chosen active phase, we find that the observed rainfall over central India tends to reach a maximum in the late night/early morning hours. This is in contrast to the observed climatological diurnal maxima of late evening hours. Interestingly, the 6km simulation for the active phase is able to reproduce this late night/early morning maxima. Upon further analysis, we find that this is because of the strong moisture convergence at the mid-troposphere during 2030-2330 IST, leading to the rainfall peak seen during 2330-0230 IST. Based on our analysis, we conclude that during both active and break phases of summer monsoon, mid-level moisture convergence seems to be one of the primary factors governing the phase of the diurnal cycle of rainfall. Over the Bay of Bengal, the 6km model simulation is in very good agreement with observations, particularly during the active phase. The southward propagation observed during 19-20 July 2006, which was not captured by the coarse resolution simulation (54km), is exceedingly well captured by the 6km simulation. The positive anomalies in specific humidity attain a maxima during 2030-0230 IST in the north and during 0830-1430 IST in the south. This confirms the role of moisture convergence in the southward propagation of rainfall. Equally importantly we find that while low level moisture convergence is dominant in the north Bay, it is the mid-level moisture convergence that is predominant in the south Bay. Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:30:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2005/980 2010-12-30T18:30:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2005/940 Title: A Variable Resolution Global Spectral Method With Finer Resolution Over The Tropics Authors: Janakiraman, S Abstract: Variable resolution method helps to study the local scale phenomenon of interest within the context of global scale atmosphere/ocean dynamics. Global spectral methods based on spherical harmonics as basis functions are known to resolve a given function defined on the sphere, in an uniform manner. Though known for its mathematical elegance and higher order accuracy, global spectral methods are considered to be restrictive for developing mesh-refinement strategies. The only mesh refinement strategy available until now is due to the pioneering work of F. Schmidt. Schmidt transformation can study only one region with higher resolution. The study of tropical dynamics is an interesting theme due to the presence of teleconnections between various phenomena, especially Indian Monsoon and the El-Nino. The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)is a continental scale phenamenon. It is in the ITCZ, many monsoon systems and tropical cyclones do occur. To study such phenomena under variable resolution method, high resolution is required in the entire tropical belt. Hitherto such a kind of mesh refinement strategies were not available in global spectral models. In this work, a new variable resolution method is developed that can help to study the tropical sub-scale phenomena with high resolution, in global spectral models. A new conformal coordinate transformation named ’High resolution Tropical Belt Transformation(HTBT)’ is developed to generate high resolution in the entire tropical belt. Mathematical demonstrations are given to show the existence of additional conformal transformations available on the sphere, indicating additional degrees of freedom available to create variable resolution global spectral method. Variable resolution global spectral method with high resolution over tropics is created through HTBT. The restriction imposed by Schmidt’s framework that the map-ping factor of the transformation need to have a finite-decomposition in the spectral space of the transformed domain is relaxed, by introduction of a new framework. The new framework uses transformed spherical harmonics Bnm as basis for spectral computations. With the use of FFT algorithm and Gaussian quadrature, the efficiency of the traditional spectral method is retained with the variable resolution global spectral method. The newly defined basis functions Bnm are the eigenvalues of the transformed Laplacian operator . This property of Bnm provide an elegant direct solver for the transformed Helmholtz operator on the sphere. The transformed Helmholtz equations are solved accurately with the variable resolution method. Advection experiments conducted with variable resolution spectral transport scheme on the HTBT variable grid produces near-dispersion free advection on the tropical belt. Transport across homogeneous resolution regions produce very less dispersion errors. Transport of a feature over the poles result in severe grid representation errors. It is shown that an increase in resolution around the poles greatly reduces this error. Transport of a feature from a point close to poles but not over it, does not produce such representation errors. Fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme improves the accuracy of the transport scheme. The second order Magazenkov time-scheme proves to be better accurate than the leap-frog scheme with Asselin filter. The non-divergent barotropic vorticity equation is tested with two exact solutions namely Rochas solution and Rossby-Haurwitz wave solutions. Each of the solution tests certain unique and contrasting characteristic of the system. The numerical behaviour of the solutions show non-linear interactions in them. The singularity at the poles, arising due to the unbounded nature of the latitudinal derivative of the map factor of HTBT, triggers Gibbs phenomena for certain functions. However the recent advances in spectral methods, especially spectral viscosity method and Boyd-Vandeven filtering strategy provide ways to control the Gibbs oscillation and recover higher accuracy; make the variable resolution global spectral method viable for accurate meteorological computations. Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:30:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2005/940 2010-11-18T18:30:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2005/941 Title: Changes In The Duration-Depth Characteristics Of Indian Monsoon Rainfall During 1951-2000 Authors: Ratan, Ram Abstract: Several previous studies have found that various characteristics of the Indian monsoon rainfall have shown secular changes over the past century. In this study, using a gridded (1degree) daily rainfall dataset, we analyse the spatio-temporal characteristics of the intensity and duration of monsoon (June through September) rainfall for secular changes over the last 50 years. The characteristics of the duration of rain events are described by wet and dry spells. A wet/dry spell is defined as a period of consecutive days with rainfall above/below a particular threshold. We choose to use a threshold that is a function of the local climatological mean, given the spatial heterogeneity of mean monsoon rainfall. The wet and dry spells are then divided into three categories: short [1 to 7 days], moderate [8 to 10 days], long [11 and more days] and analysed for changes over the past 50 years [19512000]. We find that while the number of short duration wet spells show a significant increase over the last 50 years (~15% change), the number of long duration wet spells show a significant decrease (~25%). Furthermore, while the numbers of short duration dry periods have shown a significant increase, the moderate and long duration dry spells do not shown an appreciable change. This increase and decrease in the short and long duration wet spells offset each other and consequently the total number of rainy days during the season has not shown any significant change over the past 50 years. In addition to the duration of wet and dry spells, we also analysed for changes in the accumulated rainfall of the short, medium and long duration wet spells. Our analysis suggests that while the depth of accumulated rainfall in short duration wet spells has shown a significant increase (~20%), the depth of rain in the long duration spells has shown a significant decrease (~30%) in the past fifty years. Sun, 21 Nov 2010 18:30:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2005/941 2010-11-21T18:30:00Z