Decline in national wheat productivity, and stagnation of yield in the national Advanced Varietal Trials in the past decade are partly attributed to high temperature stress during the period of grain-filling. In view of the predicted global warming, terminal heat stress is likely to increase.

The sea-ice cover in the polar regions is one of the most expansive and seasonal geophysical parameters on the earth's surface. The presence or absence of sea-ice affects the atmosphere and the ocean, and therefore the climate in many ways. In this study we have used the Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR) brightness temperature data over the Antarctic/Southern Ocean region to calculate the weekly sea-ice extents, during the melting phase from August 1999 to March 2000 to quantitatively estimate the melting rates of sea-ice on a hemispheric scale.

Extreme rainfall events today pose a serious threat to many populated and urbanized areas worldwide. An accurate estimate of frequency and distribution of these events can significantly aid in policy planning and observation system design. We report here a highresolution (10 km) analysis of heavy rainfall episodes (defined as 24-h rainfall exceeding 250 mm) over the Indian region.

The Arctic and northern subpolar regions are critical for climate change. Ice-albedo feedback amplifies warming the Arctic, and fluctuations of regional fresh water inflow into the Arctic Ocean modulate the deep ocean circulation and thus exert a strong global influence.

The Arctic and northern subpolar regions are critical for climate change. Ice-albedo feedback amplifies warming in the Arctic, and fluctuations of regional fresh water inflow to the Arctic Ocean modulate the deep ocean circulation and thus exert a strong global influence. By comparing observations to simulations from 22 coupled climate models, the researchers find influence from anthropogenic greenhouse gases and sulfate aerosols in the space-time pattern of precipitation change over high latitude land areas during the second half of the 20th century.

One of the most dramatic perturbations to the Earth system during the past 100 million years was the rapid onset of Antarctic glaciation near the Eocene/Oligocene epoch boundary (34 million years ago). This climate transition was accompanied3 by a deepening of the calcite compensation depth