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Monsoons
Letters
Issue Date: May 31, 2010
Desert cash crops will make India poor
The western part of India, specifically the dry region, will play an important role in determining the Indian monsoon and even global climate patterns. Our team at the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) recently completed an analysis on groundwater depletion in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan and found an overall decline of 20 cm per year; there was no significant recharge through monsoon rainfall.
Science & Technology - Briefs
Issue Date: Apr 30, 2010
FORENSIC SCIENCES
Whodunit
The bacteria that feed on a murderer’s skin could now be as incriminating as blood and semen. Biologists in the US have developed a technology that helps isolate the DNA from bacteria left on surfaces such as computer key boards and compare it with the genetic material from bacteria on hands. These bacteria lingered on the keyboard surface for nearly two weeks.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 15, 2010 (online)
2010: hottest year in India till date
Issue Date: Jun 30, 2010
A perplexing water cycle
@vibhavarshney Issue Date: Jan 31, 2010
The more one irrigates his lands, lower the amount of rainfall he can expect in the coming years. While agricultural lands are seeing drier weather, Indian cities are getting short but intense periods of rain and the subsequent water logging. This is the irony that a group of researchers explain. They blame land use patterns for it.
Flooding out arsenic
Issue Date: Jan 15, 2010
For the last two decades the world has been trying to explain how arsenic leaches into groundwater in the Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra floodplain. Solutions, however, are very few. An estimated 100 million people are still at risk from contamination.
This one predicts too
In a study by the Geosciences Division at Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Tropical Metereology in Pune, scientists showed there are variations in the level of a particular oxygen isotope in the trees’ cellulose. Using this in the study of annual growth rings of three teak trees from central India, they identified sub-sections of rings that formed during pre–monsoon, peak– and post–monsoon. The sections preserved different environmental conditions during the 20-day monsoon period each year, allowing for a climate model to be constructed.Monsoon maps on trees
Issue Date: Jun 15, 2010
More than half the world’s population depends on the Asian monsoon water for agriculture.
Poor monsoon means no power
Issue Date: Apr 15, 2010
Poor monsoon last year has affected power generation in Odisha. With water levels falling in the reservoirs of hydro-power projects, electricity generation has dipped. People staying at home have to bear power cuts for an hour every day.
A large, large catchment
Issue Date: Nov 30, 2009
FOR years, the Alipore Met Office in Kolkata predicted the arrival of monsoons in India after El Nino and La Nina. These are atmospheric interactions between the tropical Pacific Ocean and surrounding regions, leading to weather changes. The warm phase of El Nino and the cold phase of La Nina together form the El Nino Soutern Oscillation (ENSO).
