Impact of irrigation on the South Asian summer monsoon

The Indian subcontinent is one of the most intensely irrigated regions of the world. Using the regional climate model REMO distinct feedbacks of the monsoon circulation with irrigation processes could be shown. With irrigation, a significant model bias in temperature and mean sea level pressure over NW India/Pakistan was removed. Moreover conditions were created favourable for currents from Bay of Bengal to intrude deep into western India and Pakistan that have been unrealistically suppressed before. Thus, the representation of irrigated water is unavoidable for a realistic monsoon simulation.