KOCHI: The rapid warming of the equatorial Indian Ocean region and the cooling of atmosphere over the Eurasian continent centred around China would lead to frequent monsoon drought years in the coming decades, scientists have warned.
“The emission of sulfate aerosols owing to human actions causes the cooling of the atmosphere in the region and this phenomenon directly affects the monsoon in India,” said Dr P.V. Joseph, scientist at the Nansen Environmental Research Centre-India (NERCI).
He was delivering the keynote address at the Indo-EU workshop jointly organised by Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies and NERCI.
“We are going to face difficult times in future. The cooler upper troposphere temperature in the Tibetan plateau region and the regions to the north (central China) was associated with frequent monsoon droughts over India during the three decades from 1961 to 1990,” said the former director of Met department.
