High resolution daily gridded rainfall data for the Indian region: Analysis of break and active monsoon spells

Here, we report the development of a high resolution (1° x 1° lat./long.) gridded daily rainfall dataset for the Indian region. There are only 1803 stations with mini¬mum 90% data availability during the analysis period (1951-2003). For the analysis, we have followed the in¬terpolation method proposed by Shepard. Standard quality-controls were performed before carrying out the interpolation analysis. Comparison with similar global gridded rainfall datasets revealed that the pre¬sent rainfall analysis is better in accurate representation of spatial rainfall variation. Using this gridded rainfall dataset, an analysis was made to identify the break and active periods during the southwest monsoon season…