SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF PRECIPITATION OVER INDIA

Abstract

Precipitation is usually defined as "The amount, usually expressed in millimeters or inches of liquid water depth, of the water substance that has fallen at a given point over a specified period of time." It includes not only rain, but also other water equivalents of frozen precipitation. Reliable observations of precipitation are necessary because they have very significant short term and long term impact on humans. It affects seasonal and yearly, decisions of planting in agriculture to climate change and global warming awareness and consciousness which have a bearing on all economics related activities. Thus, it has impacts on national economies of both short term and long term.types. Precipitation varies from diurnal to weekly to seasonal to yearly and much longer periods. Hence, its recording and analysis is a very challenging problem. Also, it is not just spread over time, but also spatially. In the present work, 2 monthly gridded precipitation datasets have been analyzed and compared to make inferences about precipitation trend. Also, spatial analyses were carried out to determine the shifting of rainfall with time and space. The analysis renders several insights into precipitation changes occurring and how theories need to be refined to predict climate change using such data. The precipitation analyses can be combined with other types of analyses, such as, temperature, relative humidity etc. for further climatic research.