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 …
Measurements and models show that enhanced aerosol concentrations can augment cloud albedo not only by increasing total droplet cross-sectional area, but also by reducing precipitation and thereby increasing cloud water content and cloud coverage. Aerosol pollution is expected to exert a net cooling influence on the global climate through these …
Losing colourFrom central America to Austrelia, from the 2,000-km Great Barrier Ref to the small, reefs in Pacific islets, bleaching takes the life out of corals the world over Corals, the rainforests of the oceans, are dying. Victims of global warming, scientists say 10 per cent of the Earth's coral …
According to a study conducted by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, us, 1998 was the warmest year in 1,200 years . The rate of warming has also been on the rise since the 1970s, says a National Aeronautics and Space Administration study. This gives many scientists reason to believe that …
In the old days, miners carried canaries with them when they went to the shafts to dig out coal. Canaries were to serve as an indicator for the presence of the toxic methane gas in the mines. When the canaries showed any sign of discomfort, miners were forewarned of the …
dark shadows loom large over the Indian Ocean. They are not monsoon clouds but a brown haze of pollutants caused by high concentrations of aerosols, tiny particles about a micron (one millionth of a meter) in diameter. This has been stated by scientists involved in the Indian Ocean Experiment ( …
the theories of how the continents were formed may have to be revised. Scientists have discovered a continent that rose above the Indian Ocean at least three times over a period of 80 million years, only to disappear beneath the waves every time. It has been discovered on the seabed …
The Indian Ocean is the only place where fish availability has not reduced, unlike all other oceans, which have seen a massive depletion of stocks due to vacuum fishing practices involving factory trawlers. But still, there are several problems. There is the feud between the huge joint-venture trawler operators and …
THE big brothers are knocking at the doors of the Indian Meteorological Department. us and China have requested India to help them study the weather phenomena over the Indian Ocean and the Tibetan plateau respectively. India's meteorological expertise matches that of the world's best forecasting centres. Indian cyclone forecasting competes …
TILL recently, weather watchers knew of only I weather-monster - the El Nino. The Child Christ is a demon that disrupts the Pacific ocean, triggering droughts and floods over large and farflung areas of the planet. But new clues reveal that El Nino is not alone. There are similar but …
GEOTHERMAL power is fast emerging as a significant source for electricity in several island nations, mainly in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific regions (The Royal Geographical Society Magazine, Vol 68, No 3). For instance, Indonesia is setting up 2 geothermal power plants each of 55 mw capacity on the …
In India, the Union ministry of non-conventional energy sources is pursuing various R&D; projects to harness the geothermal energy available. About 340 hot springs have been identified in the country, with temperatures varying from 60oC to 130oC. A 5kw experimental power plant is being operated at Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh. …
SEDUCED by Western biases, archaeologists and historians have neglected the rich seafaring tradition of maritime communities in the Indian Ocean area. The sciences of boat-making and navigation were acquired and painstakingly refined over generations as a logical corollary of association with the sea. And they are still in use. Traditional …
EVEN THOUGH the profits are small, miners in search of a quick buck are exploiting coral reefs all over the Indian Ocean, causing immense damage to the marine ecology. The problem is particularly severe in Sri Lanka, where 10,000 tonnes of live coral and coral fragments are hauled ashore each …
THE MADAGASCAR pochard, a duck species thought extinct 22 years ago, has been resurrected with the recent finding of a lone male in the island nation in the Indian Ocean. The duck was nabbed by a poacher in Lake Aloatra and recovered from him. It has since been kept at …
In the past decade there has been extensive research into tropical intraseasonal variability, one of the major components of the low frequency variability of the general atmospheric circulation. This paper briefly reviews the state-of-the-art in this research area: the nature of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, its relation to monsoonal and extratropical …
The study of climate and climate change is hindered by a lack of information on the effect of clouds on the radiation balance of the earth, referred to as the cloud-radiative forcing. Quantitative estimates of the global distributions of cloud-radiative forcing have been obtained from the spaceborne Earth Radiation Budget …
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 …
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 S.W. monsoon or summer monsoon is a major event in the agricultural life of India, which has been widely studied. The chief characteristic of the pressure distribution over India during the monsoon is the trough of low which extends from the the S.E. Punjab to the head of the …
