BITMAP: Tracks of western disturbances (1979-2015)
Western disturbances (WDs) are upper-level vortices that can significantly impact the weather over Pakistan and north India. This collection contains a catalogue of the tracks of WDs passing through the region (specifically 20-36.5N, 60-80E) produced from various model outputs. This work was undertaken as part of the NERC funded BITMAP (Better understanding of Interregional Teleconnections for prediction in the Monsoon and Poles) project.
BITMAP was an Indo-UK-German project (NERC grant award: NE/P006795/1) to develop better understanding of processes linking the Arctic and Asian monsoon, leading to better prospects for prediction on short, seasonal and decadal scales in both regions. Recent work had suggested that the pole-to-equator temperature difference is an essential ingredient driving variations in the monsoon.
Tracks of these WDs were generated using a bespoke tracking algorithm within the project applied to data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts' (ECMWF) ERA-Interim reanalysis data and model output from various experiments of the World Climate Research Programme's Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (WCRP CMIP5). The algorithm, described in Hunt et al, 2017, QJRMS (see linked documentation), identified and linked upper-tropospheric vortices from the data and are available within this dataset collection. Additional details of the CMIP5 tracking algorithm are available in the Hunt et al. paper 'Representation of western disturbances in CMIP5 models' paper (see linked documentation). The principal difference between the algorithm used for the ERA-Interim data and the CMIP5 data is the choice of pressure levels on which the algorithm was run: 500 hPa for the ERA-Interim data and 450-300 hPa layer for the CMIP5 data.
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Identification info
- Metadata Language
- English (en)
- Dataset Reference Date ()
- 2019-02-05T12:21:35
- Dataset Reference Date ()
- 2019-02-05T12:21:35
- Identifier
- Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) / b1f266c25cf2445f8b87d874f6ac830a
- Maintenance and update frequency
- unknown
- Update scope
- series
- Keywords
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- BITMAP
- India
- Western disturbances
- Vortices
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ()
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- atmospheric conditions
- Limitations on Public Access
- otherRestrictions
- Other constraints
- All data within this dataset collection are available to any registered CEDA user.
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions
- Other constraints
- Usage limitations for the data within this collection is set at the individual dataset level. Please refer to the licence details of each underlying dataset.
- Spatial representation type
- grid
- Topic category
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- Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
- Begin date
- 1950-01-01T06:00:00
- End date
- 2101-01-01T00:00:00
- Code
- WGS 84
Distribution Information
- Data format
-
-
Contact data centre for format details.
()
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Contact data centre for format details.
()
- Resource Locator
-
CEDA Data Catalogue Page
Detail and access information for the resource
- Resource Locator
-
CEDA Data Catalogue Page
Detail and access information for the resource
- Quality Scope
- series
Report
- Dataset Reference Date ()
- 2010-12-08
- Statement
- Please see data lineage statements for each dataset within this collection for data lineage details.
Metadata
- File identifier
- b1f266c25cf2445f8b87d874f6ac830a XML
- Metadata Language
- English (en)
- Character set
- 8-bit variable size UCS Transfer Format, based on ISO/IEC 10646
- Resource type
- series
- Hierarchy level name
- series
- Metadata Date
- 2023-12-26T01:38:54
- Metadata standard name
- UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
- 2.3