Skip to main content
Log in

Wintertime Seasonal Scale Simulation over Western Himalaya Using RegCM3

Pure and Applied Geophysics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Himalayan region of north India is composed of complex mountain ranges with different altitudes and orientations, causing prevailing weather conditions to be complex. Wintertime eastward moving synoptic weather systems `Western Disturbances' (WDs) yield large amounts of precipitation over this region. Numerous micro/mesoscale circulations become generated along with prevailing weather due to surface heterogeneity and land-use variability of the Himalayan region. WDs along with these circulations may give rise to very adverse weather conditions over the region. Intraseasonal variability of surface climate over the Himalayas is studied using regional climate model (RegCM3) with 60 km resolution. A 6-month (Oct. 1999–Mar. 2000) period, as this period has received an enormous amount of precipitation in the form of snow, is considered to study surface climate variability in terms of temperature, precipitation and snow amount. Model simulations show cold bias over the Himalayan region and warm bias over the northwest India. Average monthly distribution of temperature indicates that a controlled experiment could capture the areas of lowest temperature regime. Precipitation fields could be simulated only up to a certain degree of satisfaction and the influence of topographic elevation and valleys needs to be seen. RegCM3 provides a representation of resolvable atmospheric circulations that results in explaining mean variability during winter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. P. Dimri.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dimri, A., Ganju, A. Wintertime Seasonal Scale Simulation over Western Himalaya Using RegCM3. Pure appl. geophys. 164, 1733–1746 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-007-0239-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-007-0239-y

Keywords

Navigation