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- Title
Increasing Arabian dust activity and the Indian Summer Monsoon.
- Authors
Solmon, F.; Nair, V. S.; Mallet, M.
- Abstract
Over the past decade, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) observations based on satellite and ground measurements have shown a significant increase over Arabia and the Arabian Sea, attributed to an intensification of regional dust activity. Recent studies have also suggested that west Asian dust forcing could induce a positive response of Indian monsoon precipitations on a weekly time scale. Using observations and a regional climate model including interactive slab ocean and dust aerosol schemes, the present study investigates possible climatic links between the increasing June-July-August-September (JJAS) Arabian dust activity and precipitation trends over southern India during the 2000-2009 decade. Meteorological reanalysis and AOD observations suggest that the observed decadal increase of dust activity and a simultaneous intensification of summer precipitation trend over southern India are both linked to a deepening of JJAS surface pressure conditions over the Arabian Sea. We show that the model skills in reproducing this trends and patterns are significantly improved only when an increasing dust emission trend is imposed on the basis of observations. We conclude that although climate variability might primarily determine the observed regional pattern of increasing dust activity and precipitation during the 2000-2009 decade, the associated dust radiative forcing might however induce a critical dynamical feedback contributing to enhanced regional moisture convergence and JJAS precipitation over Southern India.
- Subjects
ARABIAN Sea; ATMOSPHERIC aerosols; METEOROLOGICAL precipitation; DUST; SUMMER; NATURAL satellites; OPTICAL depth (Astrophysics); METEOROLOGICAL observations
- Publication
Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics Discussions, 2015, Vol 15, Issue 4, p4879
- ISSN
1680-7367
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5194/acpd-15-4879-2015