ItemArticle

Advancing Climate Services in South Asia: The SARCI Framework for Actionable Climate Information and Regional Capacity Building

Title
Advancing Climate Services in South Asia: The SARCI Framework for Actionable Climate Information and Regional Capacity Building
Creator
Bhuyan, Debi Prasad; Upadhyaya, Pankaj; Pathak, Raju; Namdev, Prabhakar; Salunke, Popat; Anand, Abhishek; Suresh, Akhil Dev; Arora, Anirudh; Baraik, Sundeep Kumar; Jain, Shipra; Parihar, Ruchi Singh; Dwivedi, Ashish; Sahany, Sandeep; Sharan, Maithili; Dash, Sushil Kumar; Fasullo, John T.; Behera, Swadhin Kumar; Tribbia, Joseph; Mishra, Saroj Kanta
Description
South Asia, home to over a quarter of the global population, faces escalating climate risks that demand scientifically credible and actionable information. However, existing global climate models exhibit persistent temperature and precipitation biasesvariables central to impact assessmentsreaching up to 25% and 100% of their mean values, respectively, over this region, thereby limiting their reliability for climate-informed long-term planning. To address these limitations, we introduce the South Asia Regional Climate Information (SARCI) frameworka regionally optimized framework designed to deliver credible, high-fidelity climate information for South Asia. The framework features a customized atmospheric model, based on NCAR CESM/ CAM, with targeted improvements in deep convection, landatmosphere interactions, and gravity wave dynamicsprocesses linked to major regional biases. These enhancements are guided by empirical understanding of regional climate behavior and refined through rigorous model tuning to achieve regional improvements without compromising global performance. The customized model substantially improves simulations of temperature and precipitation, along with a more realistic representation of regional circulation. The framework further incorporates a synthesized lower-boundary forcing component derived from skill-based CMIP models, adjusted to reduce biases in its low-frequency variability. A statistical downscaling module then refines the projections to a quarter-degree resolution, providing fine-scale, policy-relevant regional climate information. The SARCI framework demonstrates how regional optimization, coproduction, and institutional capacity building can deliver credible, policy-relevant climate information for South Asia, with broader relevance for other regions of the Global South facing similar challenges. 2026 American Meteorological Society.
Source
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society;Volume;107;Issue;3;pp.E564-E584
Date
01-01-2026
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Subject
Climate change; Climate models; Climate services; Model evaluation/ performance; Parameterization
Coverage
Bhuyan D.P., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India; Upadhyaya P., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India; Pathak R., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore; Namdev P., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany; Salunke P., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; Anand A., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India, India Meteorological Department, Kolkata, India; Suresh A.D., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India; Arora A., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhopal, India; Baraik S.K., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India; Jain S., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Parihar R.S., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India, Christ University, Bengaluru, India, Institute for Basic Science Center for Climate Physics, Daejeon, South Korea; Dwivedi A., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India; Sahany S., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India, Centre for Climate Research Singapore, Singapore, Singapore; Sharan M., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India; Dash S.K., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India; Fasullo J.T., National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States; Behera S.K., Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan; Tribbia J., National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States; Mishra S.K., IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India
Rights
Restricted Access; Hardcopy may be available in the library
Relation
ISSN: 30007; CODEN: BAMIA
Format
online
Language
English
Type
Article

Citation

Bhuyan, Debi Prasad; Upadhyaya, Pankaj; Pathak, Raju; Namdev, Prabhakar; Salunke, Popat; Anand, Abhishek; Suresh, Akhil Dev; Arora, Anirudh; Baraik, Sundeep Kumar; Jain, Shipra; Parihar, Ruchi Singh; Dwivedi, Ashish; Sahany, Sandeep; Sharan, Maithili; Dash, Sushil Kumar; Fasullo, John T.; Behera, Swadhin Kumar; Tribbia, Joseph; Mishra, Saroj Kanta, “Advancing Climate Services in South Asia: The SARCI Framework for Actionable Climate Information and Regional Capacity Building,” CHRIST (Deemed To Be University) Institutional Repository, accessed June 19, 2026, https://archives.christuniversity.in/items/show/23101.

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