The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
When does an El Nino (warming of the east and equatorial Pacific) create widespread rain deficit over India during the monsoon? K Srikanth, Chennai-based blogger and weather enthusiast, has found from a study that between 1950 and 2012, five years have seen 50 per cent or more meteorological divisions suffer …
In this paper we investigate how well residents of the Andaman coast in Phang Nga province, Thailand, are prepared for earthquakes and tsunami. It is hypothesized that formal education can promote disaster preparedness because education enhances individual cognitive and learning skills, as well as access to information. A survey was …
This paper presents key results from analysis of surface meteorological observations collected in the Northern Arabian/Persian Gulf (N Gulf; Kuwait, Bahrain, and NE Saudi Arabia), which spans a 40-years period (1973–2012). The first part of this study analyzes climate variability in the N Gulf, and relates them to teleconnection patterns …
THE “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” lies off the coast of California. But it is not the only place where a system of rotating ocean currents, known as gyres, concentrate floating material, particularly plastic detritus dumped into the sea or washed out from rivers. There is an awful lot of it: …
Black carbon is a component of soot, released during combustion, particularly incomplete combustion of fossil fuels or biomass. It is released when carbon is only partially combusted. The main sources of black carbon emissions are burning of biomass in inefficient cooking stoves, diesel emissions from the transport sector and from …
Energy is key to prosperity, and the discovery and use of fossil fuels in the past few centuries has generated tremendous wealth. Yet, this energy paradigm has now become a liability that threatens the very sustainability of all it enabled. This report analyses the impacts of fossil fuel energy in …
The world's oceans are heating at the rate of two trillion 100-watt light bulbs burning continuously, providing a clear signal of global warming, according to new study assessing data from a global fleet of drifting floats. The research, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Climate Change, used data collected …
Significant advances have been made in tsunami detection and forecasting since the Great Indian Ocean (Sumatra) Tsunami of 2004. Watch this video. Courtesy: NOAA Centre for Tsunami Research
The Indian Ocean region has a great diversity of marine ecosystems and exploited fisheries and there is an urgent need for scientists working in the region to share their knowledge and experiences in the scientific, social and economic aspects of these ecosystems and fisheries. The Department of Marine Science and …
Unprecedented wet conditions are reported in the 2014 summer (December–March) in South-western Amazon, with rainfall about 100% above normal. Discharge in the Madeira River (the main southern Amazon tributary) has been 74% higher than normal (58 000 m3 s−1) at Porto Velho and 380% (25 000 m3 s−1) at Rurrenabaque, …
Kathmandu: Maldives believes it is time to walk the talk on climate policies jointly-supported by all South Asian countries, Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen said at the 18th SAARC Summit here Wednesday. Yameen, who also officiated as the outgoing chair during the first part of the opening ceremony of the South …
Of the many processes contributing to long-term sea-level change, little attention has been paid to the large-scale contributions of salinity-driven halosteric changes. We evaluate observed and simulated estimates of long-term (1950-present) halosteric patterns and compare these to corresponding thermosteric changes. Spatially coherent halosteric patterns are visible in the historical record, …
As carbon dioxide continues to enter out Earth's atmosphere, the ocean is continuing to acidify. Now, scientists have developed a new way to measure how this acidification is affecting marine ecosystems over an entire oceanic basin. When CO2 enters our atmosphere, it also mixes with seawater. This accumulation of CO2 …
The Indian summer monsoons of 2013 and 2014 had contrasting onset and progression phases. The onset was timely and the progression of 2013 monsoon was the fastest in the last 70 years, whereas 2014 had a delayed onset and a very lethargic progression phase compared to 2013. The initial monsoon …
Daily rainfall totals are analyzed for the main agro-climatic zones of Sri Lanka for the period 1976–2006. The emphasis is on daily rainfall rather than on longer-period totals, in particular the number of daily falls exceeding given threshold totals. For one station (Mapalana), where a complete daily series is available …
El Nino conditions are easing in the central and eastern tropical Pacific in the latest available indications that the Indian monsoon might just be able to shrug off its feared adverse impact on seasonal rains. The ocean waters in the ‘suspect area’ in the Pacific have cooled over the last …
The 2014 Human Development Report—Sustaining Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience—looks at two concepts which are both interconnected and immensely important. This year's Report show that overall global trends are positive and that progress is continuing. Yet, lives are being lost, and livelihoods and development undermined, by natural or human-induced …
Globally, sea levels have risen faster than at any time during the previous two millennia – and the effects are felt in South Asia. Changing patterns of rainfall or melting snow and ice are altering freshwater systems, affecting the quantity and quality of water available in many regions, including South …
The El Nino is not the only factor that tripped monsoon rains in India during June, according to a lead scientist with a research group Japanese national forecaster Jamstec. This is the latest in a series of expert voices which has shared the view that local factors have played no …
