Effect of sea surface temperature on monsoon rainfall in a coastal region of India

The Indian Monsoon, the onset and strength of which decides the fate of millions of people in the Indian sub continent, depends on a number of global parameters and phenomena – most of which are continuous. It is well established that almost all global climatic phenomena are inter-related. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is one of the key factors influencing the Indian monsoon. Even roughly predicting the Indian Monsoon helps considerably the economies of the countries in the Indian sub continent – most of which are agriculture based. In the present study, an attempt is made to establish a relationship between Sea Surface Temperatures across the globe and monsoon rainfall in coastal region of Orissa State, India. This study aims at evolving and analyzing the correlation contour patterns using GrADS (Grid Analysis and Display System) software for different lead times and then interpret the salient features, to predict monsoon in Orissa based on SST anomaly data. The correlation contours generated in this study will prove quite useful for predicting the rainfall pattern over Coastal Orissa, based on variation in sea surface temperatures across the globe and in marking out the regions of influence

Conjunctive use modeling for multicrop irrigation

A mathematical model is developed to arrive at an optimal conjunctive use policy for irrigation of multiple crops in a reservoir-canal–aquifer system. The integration of the reservoir operation for canal release, ground water pumping and crop water allocations during different periods of crop season (intraseasonal periods) is achieved through the objective of maximizing the sum of relative yields of crops over a year considering three sets of constraints: mass balance at the reservoir, soil moisture balance for individual crops, and governing equations for ground water flow. The conjunctive use model is formulated with these constraints linked together by appropriate additional constraints as a deterministic linear programming model. A two-dimensional isotropic, homogeneous unconfined aquifer is considered for modeling. The aquifer response is modeled through the use of a finite element ground water model. A conjunctive use policy is defined by specifying the ratio of the annual allocation of surface water to that of ground water pumping at the crop level for the entire irrigated area. A conjunctive use policy is termed stable when the policy results in a negligible change in the ground water storage over a normal year. The applicability of the model is demonstrated through a case study of an existing reservoir command area in Chitradurga district, Karnataka State, India