Rain-induced surface sensible heat flux reduces monsoonal rainfall over India

This precipitation-induced sensible heat flux (QP) is typically ignored in models. However, during heavy rainfall, QP can be large and may not be negligible such as over India during the summer monsoon season.

We provide the first results of incorporating QP in a simulation that shows similar to 2% (similar to 5%) reduction in precipitation over India compared to the simulation without QP during a monsoonal active phase in 2017 (2018). This reduction was primarily due to a reduction in vertical advection of moisture. Additionally, QP modified the spatial distribution of precipitation with 40% of the geographical area encountering alterations of at least 20% in precipitation.