Hyderabad: The Southwest monsoon, a major source of rainfall in the state, could witness abrupt changes in the future if the past pattern is anything to go by.
New research mapping monsoonal changes in the state over a 1,000-year period found regular changes in the monsoon pattern which were extremely abrupt occurring over a period of a few decades.
Scientists say in the future, abrupt changes in the Southwest monsoon could intensify and be more complex. Scientists also say that there is evidence of the Southwest monsoon being directly influenced by solar radiations and other ocean-atmospheric factors.
Scientists from city-based National Geophysical Research Institute mapped the Southwest monsoon activity of nearly 15,000 years ago, a period characterised by major climatic changes.
Stalagmite deposits from ancient Valmiki caves in Kurnool district were dated with uranium-thorium dating techniques to learn more about monsoonal activity during ancient times.
Dr Syed Masood Ahmed, scientist at NGRI, said, “This is the first high resolution data for AP. We have found abrupt changes in the Indian summer monsoon which were sometimes very intense. We noticed a very wet phase with high intensity rainfall and then within a few decades, there was very low rainfall.”
