Natural Decadal Climate Variability

Dr. Vikram Mehta earned his M.Sc. in Physics in 1977 and post-graduate diploma in space sciences and their applications 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 from 1979 to 1982, working on microwave remote sensing. 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. At ICCSIR, Vikram established research programs in climate science, and applications of climate information for management of water resources and agriculture; and programs to educate and train college and university teachers and students in climate science. 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.

Foreword. About the Author. Prologue. Introduction to Decadal Climate Variability Phenomena. Ancient Observers Riding Decadal Hydrologic Cycles. Modern Observers Riding Decadal Hydrologic Cycles. River Flow and Its Impacts. Land’s Bounty. Oceans’ Bounty. Epilogue. List of Abbreviations. Glossary of Terms. References.