Analysis of Temperature Trends in Sutluj River Basin, India
Received Date: Jul 14, 2014 / Accepted Date: Sep 24, 2014 / Published Date: Sep 30, 2014
Abstract
Surface air temperature is an important climatic variable that drives the hydrological cycle. Precipitation and runoff production are impacted by surface air temperature changes and are, therefore, important for water resources planning, irrigation and agriculture. Focusing on the Sutlej Basin in the Himalayan region, the present research is aimed at utilizing observational evidence to evaluate the response of the region to global warming through investigation of temperature trends. Trends in long-term average annual and seasonal surface air temperature, and several temperature indices at eight stations in the Sutlej River basin have been examined using Mann-Kendall non-parametric test. Six stations exhibited increasing trends in annual average maximum temperature with two being statistically significant. The trends in annual average minimum temperature were mixed; three of eight stations exhibited statistically significant decreasing trends. Some higher elevation stations exhibited clear warming trends both in maximum and minimum temperatures. Analysis of seasonal temperature data indicated that the warming was more pronounced in winter and spring than in summer and autumn. Trends in temperature indices considered in this paper were predominantly increasing. The predominant pattern of increased warming in the basin could have implications for water availability as the snow and glacier melt contribution to annual runoff at Bhakra reservoir is estimated at 59%. The analysis shows that even within a small area, there is variability in the magnitude and direction of historic temperature trends. Some of these variations could be partially attributed to data reliability.
Keywords: Climate; Mann kendall; Satluj; Temperature; Trends
Citation: Hamid AT, Sharif M, Archer D (2014) Analysis of Temperature Trends in Satluj River Basin, India. J Earth Sci Clim Change 5: 222. Doi: 10.4172/2157-7617.1000222
Copyright: ©2014 Hamid AT, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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