Recent changes on land use/land cover over Indian region and its impact on the weather prediction using Unified model

Abstract

Abstract This study compares the changes of land use/land cover (Lu/Lc) or the surface type in last decades over India. Recent surface‐type fractions show few major regional changes over India. There is a decrease in vegetation fraction, increase in urban and bare soil fractions over India. The Unified Model coupled with Joint UK Land Environment Simulator land surface model was used to investigate the recent Lu/Lc impact on weather prediction. Preliminary results show improvement in weather prediction by the incorporation of the recent Lu/Lc data. This highlights the need to incorporate more realistic Lu/Lc in the dynamical models for better weather prediction.