Topic
Precipitation
About: Precipitation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 32861 publications have been published within this topic receiving 990496 citations. The topic is also known as: rain & rainfall.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors show from analyses of satellite and local well data spanning the past decade that long-term changes in monsoon precipitation are driving groundwater storage variability in most parts of India either directly by changing recharge or indirectly by changing abstraction.
Abstract: The depletion of groundwater resources threatens food and water security in India. However, the relative influence of groundwater pumping and climate variability on groundwater availability and storage remains unclear. Here we show from analyses of satellite and local well data spanning the past decade that long-term changes in monsoon precipitation are driving groundwater storage variability in most parts of India either directly by changing recharge or indirectly by changing abstraction. We find that groundwater storage has declined in northern India at the rate of 2 cm yr−1 and increased by 1 to 2 cm yr−1 in southern India between 2002 and 2013. We find that a large fraction of the total variability in groundwater storage in north-central and southern India can be explained by changes in precipitation. Groundwater storage variability in northwestern India can be explained predominantly by variability in abstraction for irrigation, which is in turn influenced by changes in precipitation. Declining precipitation in northern India is linked to Indian Ocean warming, suggesting a previously unrecognized teleconnection between ocean temperatures and groundwater storage. Groundwater storage has declined in northern India and increased in southern India over the past decade. Trend analysis shows that much of this variability can be explained by changes in irrigation in response to monsoon precipitation.
298 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the eddy covariance method was used to measure CO2, water vapor, and sensible heat in young ponderosa pine plantations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (CA) over two growing seasons.
298 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an increase in global average precipitation of about 10% is simulated by two global climate models with mixed layer oceans in response to an equilibrium doubling of carbon dioxide, and regional changes in daily precipitation simulated by these models have been compared.
Abstract: An increase in global average precipitation of about 10% is simulated by two global climate models with mixed layer oceans in response to an equilibrium doubling of carbon dioxide. The UKHI model was developed in the United Kingdom at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research and the CSIRO9 model was developed in Australia by the CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research. Regional changes in daily precipitation simulated by these models have been compared. Both models simulate fewer wet days in middle latitudes, and more wet days in high latitudes. At middle and low latitudes, there is a shift in the precipitation type toward more intense convective events, and fewer moderate non-convective events. At high latitudes, the precipitation type remains non-convective and all events simply get heavier, resulting in fewer light events and more moderate and heavy events. The probability of heavy daily precipitation increases by more than 50% in many locations. Extreme events with a probability of 1% or less were considered in terms of return periods (the average period between events of the same magnitude). For a given return period of at least 1 y, precipitation intensity in Europe, USA, Australia and India increases by 10 to 25%. For a given precipitation intensity, the average return period becomes shorter by a factor of 2 to 5. Given that larger changes in frequency occur for heavier simulated events, changes may be even greater for more-extreme events not resolved by models.
298 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a linear theory of orographic precipitation is developed, including airflow dynamics, condensed water advection, and downslope evaporation, and the formulation extends the widely used upslope model.
Abstract: A linear theory of orographic precipitation is developed, including airflow dynamics, condensed water advection, and downslope evaporation. The formulation extends the widely used ‘‘upslope’’ model. Vertically integrated steady-state governing equations for condensed water are solved using Fourier transform techniques. Closed form expressions are derived for special cases. For more general cases, the precipitation field is computed quickly by multiplying the terrain transform by a wavenumber-dependent transfer function. Five length scales are included in the model: mountain width, a buoyancy wave scale, the moist layer depth, and two condensed water advection distances. The efficiency of precipitation in the model is sensitive to the decay of the forced ascent through the moist layer and to the advection of condensed water downwind into the region of descent. The strong influence of horizontal scale on precipitation pattern and amount predicted by the model is discussed. The model is illustrated by applying it to the Olympic Mountains in Washington State.
297 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a probabilistic model for the sequence of daily amounts of precipitation is proposed, which is a generalization of the commonly used Markov chain model for occurrence of precipitation.
Abstract: A probabilistic model for the sequence of daily amounts of precipitation is proposed. This model is a generalization of the commonly used Markov chain model for the occurrence of precipitation. Methods are given for computing the distribution of the maximum amount of daily precipitation and the distribution of the total amount of precipitation. The application of this model is illustrated by an example, using State College, Pennsylvania, precipitation data.
297 citations