Natural Decadal Climate Variability

Dr. Vikram Mehta earned his M.Sc. in Physics in 1977 and his PhD in Space Sciences in 1979 from Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India. He then became an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Research Fellow at the Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad, India. He studied upper atmospheric physics at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, from 1982 to 1984, earning a post-graduate diploma in physics. A strong interest in more application-oriented scientific research led him to the Department of Meteorology at the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, where he earned his M.S. in 1986 and Ph.D. in meteorology in 1990. After his Ph.D. work on natural decadal climate variability (DCV), Vikram was a research scientist from 1990 to 2002 at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)–Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland–College Park, conducting further research on DCV. Strongly motivated to use climate science for societal benefits, Vikram founded the Center for Research on the Changing Earth System (CRCES), a nonprofit, scientific research organization in Columbia, Maryland, in 2002. Currently, he is the President and Executive Director of CRCES, which specializes in research on DCV and its impacts on water, food, energy, and water-borne transportation. Vikram also served as the Executive Director of the Indian Centre for Climate and Societal Impacts Research (ICCSIR) in Ahmedabad, India, from 2008 to 2013. Vikram’s major research interests include understanding and prediction of DCV; assessment and prediction of DCV impacts on regional and global water– food–energy–public health securities; and climate and public policy. Vikram has published more than 150 research papers and conference/workshop contributions. For outstanding achievements in climate science, the Non-Resident Indian Welfare Society of India bestowed on Vikram the Mahatma Gandhi Samman (Honor) in 2012 in a ceremony in the House of Lords of the U.K. Parliament in London; and their highest award, the Hind Ratna (Jewel of India), in 2015 in New Delhi, India.

"Vikram Mehta has been actively involved in decadal climate variability (DCV) research for decades. This book is an eyewitness report about the fascinating science of DCV." Prof. Dr. Mojib Latif, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany"We are becoming used to the fact that the climate is changing due to human influences, but in our lifetimes most of us will be much more affected by decadal climate variability. This book provides a comprehensive review, covering DCV in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans as well as in tropical cyclones and extratropical winds. Highlighted throughout the book are potential links between DCV and solar variability, a fascinating topic that has engaged our minds for centuries. Written by an expert with more than 30 years’ experience, this book should be an invaluable resource for students and researchers interested in how our climate will evolve over the coming decades."Dr. Doug Smith, Met Office Hadley Centre, UK"Provides a comprehensive account of decadal time-scale variations in the global and regional climate, that are of societal relevance. There is a detailed discussion on solar influences on the Earth’s climate variability, along with supporting examples of natural DCV and their interactions with human-induced climate change. This book will be useful for policy makers also."Dr. Krishnan Raghavan, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India"This book is a tour de force by the author who has spent his career studying decadal climate variability. He brings new insights to the vast scope of this topic, providing clearly understandable descriptions of the various aspects. This compelling treatment of a highly relevant area of climate science will clarify these complex topics for readers who have varying familiarities with science. The book can be read as not only a general overview of decadal climate variability, but also as a primer on the scientific details of such variability and predictions. Additionally, it serves as a guide to the impacts that arise as a consequence of climate variability on the timescales of seasons to decades."Dr. Gerald Meehl, Senior Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Colorado, USA

• Prologue. Solar Influences and the Earth’s Climate Variability. Slowly Oscillates the Pacific. Tropical Atlantic Dipole: Mystery or Myth?. On the Waves of the Sindhu Mahasagar. What’s In a NAM(e)?. SAM, The Albatross. Natural Decadal Climate Variability and Anthropogenic Climate Change. Modulations of Tropical Cyclones. Looking Through a Cloudy Crystal Ball. Epilogue