A collaboration between AOSC/ESSIC professor Sumant Nigam and AOSC associate research professor Alfredo Ruiz-Barradas was published in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Hydrometeorology last May. The paper uses a simple hydrologic model driven by high-resolution precipitation of observations and forecasts to analyze precipitation and streamflow in the Mekong River Basin. It assesses the true origin of the water, revealing that China’s influence on the Mekong is likely overstated. This study is a prototype of space-based analyses of the water cycle, and has the potential to provide the objective technical underpinning of efforts targeting resolution of transboundary water issues.
Dr. Nigam is a Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland, with a joint appointment in the university’s Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center. Dr. Ruiz-Barradas is an associate research professor for the University of Maryland’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science.
To read the full publication, see Hydroclimate Variability and Change over the Mekong River Basin: Modeling and Predictability and Policy Implications.
