BITMAP: Tracks of western disturbances (1979-2015)

Western disturbances (WDs) are upper-level vortices that can significantly impact the weather over Pakistan and north India. This collection contains a catalogue of the tracks of WDs passing through the region (specifically 20-36.5N, 60-80E) produced from various model outputs. This work was undertaken as part of the NERC funded BITMAP (Better understanding of Interregional Teleconnections for prediction in the Monsoon and Poles) project.

BITMAP was an Indo-UK-German project (NERC grant award: NE/P006795/1) to develop better understanding of processes linking the Arctic and Asian monsoon, leading to better prospects for prediction on short, seasonal and decadal scales in both regions. Recent work had suggested that the pole-to-equator temperature difference is an essential ingredient driving variations in the monsoon.

Tracks of these WDs were generated using a bespoke tracking algorithm within the project applied to data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts' (ECMWF) ERA-Interim reanalysis data and model output from various experiments of the World Climate Research Programme's Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (WCRP CMIP5). The algorithm, described in Hunt et al, 2017, QJRMS (see linked documentation), identified and linked upper-tropospheric vortices from the data and are available within this dataset collection. Additional details of the CMIP5 tracking algorithm are available in the Hunt et al. paper 'Representation of western disturbances in CMIP5 models' paper (see linked documentation). The principal difference between the algorithm used for the ERA-Interim data and the CMIP5 data is the choice of pressure levels on which the algorithm was run: 500 hPa for the ERA-Interim data and 450-300 hPa layer for the CMIP5 data.

Date (Publication): 2019-02-05T12:21:35

Date (Creation): 2019-02-05T12:21:35

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/b1f266c25cf2445f8b87d874f6ac830a

Citation identifier: Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) / b1f266c25cf2445f8b87d874f6ac830a

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Unavailable	Turner, Andrew G.	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Hunt, Kieran	Unavailable	Author
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Custodian
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Owner
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	pointofContact
Unavailable	Turner, Andrew G.	Unavailable	pointofContact
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Unknown

Update scope: Series

Keywords

BITMAP
India
Western disturbances
Vortices

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: All data within this dataset collection are available to any registered CEDA user.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 1950-01-01T06:00:00

End date: 2101-01-01T00:00:00

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

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Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/b1f266c25cf2445f8b87d874f6ac830a	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3200	Hunt, K. M., Turner, A. G. and Shaffrey, L. C. (2018), The evolution, seasonality and impacts of western disturbances. Q.J.R. Meteorol. Soc., 144: 278-290. doi:10.1002/qj.3200

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0420.1	Hunt, K.M., A.G. Turner, and L.C. Shaffrey, 0: Representation of western disturbances in CMIP5 models. J. Climate, 0, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0420.1

Hierarchy level: Series

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Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: Please see data lineage statements for each dataset within this collection for data lineage details.

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File identifier: b1f266c25cf2445f8b87d874f6ac830a XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Hierarchy level: Series

Hierarchy level name: series

Date stamp: 2026-01-15T03:27:03

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Point of contact

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