Five watersheds (W1, W2, W3, W4 and W5) in the upper Indus basin were chosen for detailed studies to understand the influences of geomorphology, drainage basin morphometry and vegetation patterns on hydrology. From the morphometric analysis, it is evident that the hydrologic response of these watersheds changes significantly in response to spatial variations in morphometric parameters. Results indicate that W1, W2 and W5 contribute higher surface runoff than W3 and W4.

Being the highest specific discharge river system in the world, the Brahmaputra river experiences a number of long-duration flood waves during the monsoon season annually. In order to assess the flood characteristics at the basin and tributary scales, a physically based macro-scale distributed hydrological model (DHM) has been calibrated and validated for 9 wet years. The model performance has been evaluated in terms of prediction of the flood characteristics such as peak discharge, flood duration, arrival time of flood wave, timing of the peak flow and number of flood waves per season.

A detailed analytical study of major cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+) and anions (SO2− 4 , HCO−3 , Cl−, NO−3 ) of meltwater draining from Gangotri Glacier was carried out to understand major ion chemistry and to get an insight into geochemical weathering processes controlling hydrochemistry of the glacier. In the meltwater, the abundance order of cations and anions varied as follows: Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+ >Na+ and SO2− 4 > HCO−3 > Cl− > NO−3 , respectively. Calcium and magnesium are dominant cations while sulphate and bicarbonate are dominant anions.

The failure of atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) forced by prescribed SST to simulate and predict the interannual variability of Indian/Asian monsoon has been widely attributed to their inability to reproduce the actual sea surface temperature (SST)–rainfall relationship in the warm Indo-Pacific oceans. This assessment is based on a comparison of the observed and simulated correlation between the rainfall and local SST. However, the observed SSTconvection/rainfall relationship is nonlinear and for this a linear measure such as the correlation is not an appropriate measure.

The most used temperature and salinity climatology for the world ocean, including the Indian Ocean, is the World Ocean Atlas (WOA) (Antonov et al 2006, 2010; Locarnini et al 2006, 2010) because of the vast amount of data used in its preparation. The WOA climatology does not, however, include all the available hydrographic data from the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), leading to the potential for improvement if the data from this region are included to prepare a new climatology.

Data on surface ozone concentration compiled for a 10-year period from 1990 to 1999 for Pune and Delhi are analyzed in terms of its frequency distribution, annual trend, diurnal variation and its relation with various meteorological and chemical parameters. It is found that the surface ozone concentration range showing highest frequency of occurrence at Pune is 0–5 ppb during winter and post-monsoon seasons and 15–20 ppb and 5–10 ppb during summer and monsoon seasons, respectively. It is 0–5 ppb at Delhi during all the seasons.

The palynostratigraphic data given here are based on the explored borecores (TRBD-2, TRBD-3 and TROD-1), by Geological Survey of India. The Permian strata worked-out is about 1174.00 m thick and comprises from base to top – Talchir, Barakar and Barren Measures formations. The palynological content enables delimitation of five palynological assemblages. (i) Scheuringipollenites barakarensis, (ii) Faunipollenites varius, (iii) Gondisporites raniganjensis, (iv) Densipollenites magnicorpus, and (v) Krempipollenites indicus in ascending order from the subsuface rock strata.

Regional Climate Model of version 3 (RegCM3) was driven with Emissions Scenarios A2 of ECHAM4 at 0.54°×0.54° horizontal grid resolution in two parameterizations: Grell scheme with Arakawa–Schubert (GAS) and Fritch–Chappell (GFC) assumptions. The simulated rainfall and mean surface air temperature were calibrated and validated against ground-based observed data in Bangladesh during the period 1961–1990. The Climate Research Unit (CRU) data is also used for understanding the model performance.

India Meteorological Department has implemented district level medium range rainfall forecast system applying multimodel ensemble technique, making use of model outputs of state-of-the-art global models from the five leading global NWP centres.

Time series analysis of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) derived from NOAA-AVHRR data during the period 1996–1999 and the MODIS data during 2000–2009 over the Arabian Sea revealed a systematic biennial variability in the high AOD during summer months. The variability is more prominent over the northern and central parts of the Arabian Sea and became less significant towards southern latitudes. The possible mechanisms for these are examined by estimating the source strength over coastal Arabia and AOD flow rate through the western boundary of the Arabian Sea.