Atmospheric water budget over the South Asian summer monsoon region

Abstract

High resolution hybrid atmospheric water budget over the South Asian monsoon region is examined. The regional characteristics, variability, regional controlling factors and the interrelations of the atmospheric water budget components are investigated. The surface evapotranspiration was created using the High Resolution Land Data Assimilation System (HRLDAS) with the satellite-observed rainfall and vegetation fraction. HRLDAS evapotranspiration shows significant similarity with in situ observations and MODIS satellite-observed evapotranspiration. Result highlights the fundamental importance of evapotranspiration over northwest and southeast India on atmospheric water balance. The investigation shows that the surface net radiation controls the annual evapotranspiration over those regions, where the surface evapotranspiration is lower than 550 mm. The rainfall and evapotranspiration show a linear relation over the low-rainfall regions (<500 mm/year). Similar result is observed in in NASA GLDAS data (1980–2014). The atmospheric water budget shows annual, seasonal, and intra-seasonal variations. Evapotranspiration does not show a high intra-seasonal variability as compared to other water budget components. The coupling among the water budget anomalies is investigated. The results show that regional inter-annual evapotranspiration anomalies are not exactly in phase with rainfall anomalies; it is strongly influenced by the surface conditions and other atmospheric forcing (like surface net radiation). The lead and lag correlation of water budget components show that the water budget anomalies are interrelated in the monsoon season even up to 4 months lead. These results show the important regional interrelation of water budget anomalies on south Asian monsoon.