Climate data in india - Open and Closed
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The document discusses the challenges and initiatives regarding climate data availability in India, particularly through the efforts of the Public Affairs Centre's Environmental Governance Group. It emphasizes the need for localized climate understanding, exemplified by the analysis of rainfall data in Bangalore, while highlighting the disparity in data accessibility from traditional meteorological sources. The initiative aims to engage communities in understanding their local climate through data visualization and invites volunteers for further development.
Climate data in india - Open and Closed
- 1. Climate Data in India: Open and Closed - Pavan Srinath Environmental Governance Group, Public Affairs Centre pavan.srinath@pacindia.org | @zeusisdead
- 2. Introduction Public Affairs Centre is a non-profit organisation in Bangalore promoting good governance since 1994 through research, advocacy and action. In 2010, we formed a new group called the Environmental Governance Group, focusing on trying to develop governance solutions to environmental issues in India, including climate change adaptation. In the struggle for assessing climate change impacts, exploring robust adaptation options, and trying to work with both community knowledge & climate science, we thought that it was worthwhile to take a step back, and try to learn more about our local climate first. This started an initiative called Know Your Climate. www.pacindia.org | www.knowyourclimate.org
- 3. Climate Data in India • Indian Meteorological Department, the Hegemon – Lots of data vs. No data available in the public domain. The conundrum is that India has one of the oldest meteorological institutions in the world, with a rich instrumental record, but very little data is available for the public to use! • IMD Stations & Everybody else’s Rain Gauges While IMD maintains weather stations across India, state economics departments, disaster management cells and others maintain a far larger number of rain gauges across the country. Some states like Rajasthan have put rain gauge data in the public domain (HT: India Water Portal), but others are yet to follow. • Station data vs. Gridded products vs. Satellite products Station data can be really expensive! So, data from individual stations are usually processed to develop gridded data sets, both in India and elsewhere. The IMD has developed a few that are inexpensive, but with restrictions on use. There’s currently one daily gridded dataset from Japan that’s available for public use! (see next page) Now satellites like NASA’s TRMM can directly measure a host of weather & climate parameters including surface temperature, rainfall, sea winds and more! • The Intrepid farmer! In the heavily contested area of good quality & open climate data, where you can’t always trust the numbers, sometimes it’s the intrepid farmer with a private rain gauge who comes to your rescue!
- 4. Gridded data from Japan! The only long-term (1951-2007) daily rainfall data set that’s currently open for non-commercial use: http://www.chikyu.ac.jp/ Krishnamurthi et al (2009) APHRODITE Rainfall data set, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan
- 5. Mr. Vimal Kumar, a coffee planter from Wayanad who started collecting rainfall data daily from April 1983, and hasn’t stopped since!
- 6. Gridded data from Japan! Can’t we go local? Pan-Indian climate & monsoon analyses cannot take into account India’s immense geographic and climatic diversity. It’s imperative that we go ‘local’ with our understanding. Let’s ask the question “What do we know about Bangalore’s climate?” rather than “What do we know about India’s climate?” With gridded data sets, we can begin doing that in an inexpensive manner. http://www.chikyu.ac.jp/ Krishnamurthi et al (2009) APHRODITE Rainfall data set, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan
- 7. Going Local with Climate Data Zooming in on Bangalore The next few slides will look at the little grid cell that focuses on Bangalore. The two pink dots represent the city & HAL airport IMD stations, the likely source for generating the gridded data. APHRODITE Rainfall data set, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan
- 8. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data
- 9. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data Monthly Rainfall Profile of Bangalore (1951-2007) This is the most common picture that you see, when somebody talks about the ‘rainfall 180 profile’ of a place. 160 What you can tell from this is that Bangalore has 153.8 two seasons of rainfall, one summer and one 149.2 monsoon. 140 120 101.9 Rainfall (mm) 100 89.1 82.0 80 62.1 60 50.1 40 36.7 20 15.2 9.7 1.6 4.4 0 Source: APHRODITE Rainfall data set, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan
- 10. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data Monthly Rainfall Profile of Bangalore (1951-2007) If the last graph is converted into mm/day, you end up with this graph, showing the monthly averages of how much rain fell on a ‘per day’ basis. 10 Monthly Average 8 Rainfall (mm/day) 6 4 2 0 1 Source: APHRODITE Rainfall data set, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan
- 11. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data Daily Rainfall Profile of Bangalore (1951-2007) The daily averages show a completely different picture! And our seasons don’t respect monthly boundaries. 10 Monthly Average Daily Rainfall 8 Rainfall (mm/day) 6 4 2 0 1 Source: APHRODITE Rainfall data set, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan
- 12. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data Daily Rainfall Profile of Bangalore (1951-2007) 10.0 Daily Rainfall 8.0 When Bangalore rainfall really Rainfall (mm/day) picks up! 6.0 Onset of the Summer rain monsoon 4.0 2.0 A recurring dry period in June! 0.0 1 Source: APHRODITE Rainfall data set, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan
- 13. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data Daily Rainfall Probability, Bangalore 100% Chance of Rainfall on any given day 80% % Chance of Rainfall 60% On any given day, assuming no other knowledge, there’s never any certain rain in Bangalore. Unlike some places on the coast and 40% elsewhere. 20% 0% 1 Chance of rain >= 2.5mm
- 14. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data Daily Rainfall Probability, Bangalore 100% But the certainty of some 7 day rain within a week is far higher. 1 day 80% % Probabiliy of Rainfall 60% 40% 20% 0% Jan Axis Title Chance of rain >= 2.5mm
- 15. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data Daily Rainfall Profile of Bangalore (1951-2007) 10.0 Daily Rainfall 8.0 Rainfall (mm/day) 6.0 4.0 2.0 0.0 1
- 16. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data How much rain do we get, when it does rain? 20 Amount of Rainfall per rainy day 15 Rainfall (mm/day) 10 5 0 1 Days such as those in Feb/Mar seem to correspond well to the adage: When it rains, it pours!
- 17. The Joy of Daily Rainfall Data What’s the most it can rain in a day? 120 Maximum recorded rainfall on any date 100 80 Rainfall (mm/day) 60 40 20 0 1 We can get heavy rainfall in Bangalore almost any time between April and December. And Bangalore gets ~1-2 heavy rainfall days almost every year. So why do they still catch us by surprise?
- 18. The Depressing part about Rainfall Rainfall in Aug-Sept 2011, Bangalore This is actual rainfall by day in 2011. On August 16 night, it rained very heavily, with the Bangalore city weather station (near Maharani’s college) recording over 100mm of rain. http://www.imdaws.com/ViewAwsData.aspx
- 19. The Depressing part about Rainfall What happens to Bangalore when it rains… Boy drowns in a (Taken from news clippings) drain Storm Drains overflowing Flooding of houses Trees uprooted Gali Anjaneya Severe Flooding in Hebbal temple & surroundings damaged 2 die in mud cave- in ----------------------------------------------------Traffic Disruptions------------------------------------------------- http://www.imdaws.com/ViewAwsData.aspx
- 20. The Depressing part about Rainfall What happens to Bangalore when it rains… (Taken from news clippings) Boy drowns in a Storm Drains drain overflowing Flooding of houses Trees uprooted Gali Anjaneya Severe Flooding in Hebbal temple & surroundings damaged What has JnNURM done for us? Water gushes under the metro Storm Water Drain irregularities discovered. BBMP starts fixing More metro woes potholes 2 die in mud cave- ----------------------------------------------------Traffic Disruptions------------------------------------------------- in
- 21. Revisiting traditional knowledge systems The Malayalam calendar & Rainfall in Wayanad If we can map rainfall patterns onto the traditional Karkkidakam calendar, it would go a long way in mainstreaming traditional knowledge! This is just an example from what we did in Wayanad, Kerala. Chinga masam Edavam paadhi Tulavarsham Puthu mazha Vishu Onam Kumbha mazha Harvest Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Kumar and Srinath, Climate Trends in Wayanad: Voices from the Community (2011)
- 22. A year’s rainfall is like a signature – each one unique. Monthly Rainfall series in Wayanad, 2000-2011 1000 Muttil 800 Rainfall (mm) 600 400 200 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Year Just to throw a note of caution: the presentation discusses rainfall patterns and daily averages, but it’s good to remember that they’re just that: Averages. Each year’s climate & rainfall pattern is still quite unique, as seen in the graph above.
- 23. Acknowledgements All that you have seen is a part of the fledgling Know your climate initiative, where we want people to understand their local climate using data that we help visualize. It’s not yet operational, and we are looking for volunteers to help us out with web-designing and visualization! Please spread the word! People who’ve helped make this possible are Adarsh DK and Yashas MS (Btech 2nd year, NIT Surathkal), who spent summer ’11 working with us; Danesh Kumar, RASTA, for the work in Wayanad; my colleagues at Public Affairs Centre: Jangal Jayaram, Prarthana Rao, Kuldip Gyaneswar and Director R. Suresh.
- 24. References APHRODITE Daily Rainfall Data set at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan: http://www.chikyu.ac.jp/ “Climate Trends in Wayanad: Voices from the Community”, Conference paper (2011): http://goo.gl/QIA7k IMD Automater Weather Station website: http://www.imdaws.com/ViewAwsData.aspx Do keep an eye on blog.knowyourclimate.org!
- 25. Thank you! www.pacindia.org @zeusisdead greengovernance.wordpress.com pavan.srinath@pacindia.org