Low‐frequency of southern Asian monsoon variability using a 295‐year record from the Dasuopu ice core in the central Himalayas

Abstract

A better understanding of the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall in the Himalayas should be extremely important to improve our understanding of Asian monsoon dynamics. There is little that is understood about rainfall variability at the high Himalayas with elevation over 7000 m a.s.l. Here a high‐resolution snow accumulation record from a well dated Dasuopu ice core from central Himalayas reflects low‐frequency variability of monsoon precipitation over the last 295‐year. MultiDecadal to centennial variations in the Dasuopu snow accumulation (DSA) are in‐phase (out‐of‐phase) with that in monsoon rainfall of northeast Indian, Nepal and Bangladesh (southern India) over the period 1901–1995. The record shows the monsoon in central Himalayas had weakened in 18th century and strengthened throughout much of 19th and early 20th century, and then weakening again from early 1920s to the present.