Fig. 2: Identification of major drought events during Harappan timeframe and corresponding changes in paleoclimate variables. | Communications Earth & Environment

Fig. 2: Identification of major drought events during Harappan timeframe and corresponding changes in paleoclimate variables.

From: River drought forcing of the Harappan metamorphosis

Fig. 2: Identification of major drought events during Harappan timeframe and corresponding changes in paleoclimate variables.

a Annual air temperature over IVC derived from the TraCE-21ka simulations; b Simulated ensemble rainfall from three transient climate simulations (TraCE-21ka, MPI, and TR6AV) with associated uncertainty, calculated as ± 1 standard deviation; c Similar to b but for Standardized precipitation Index (SPI) computed with respect to the Pre Harappan period; d Detrended SPI and identification of major flood and drought events using the threshold of 0.5 and −0.5, respectively; e Variation in detrended DJF mean SST anomalies over the Niño 3.4 and AMO region. All the variables in (a–e) are 100 year moving mean estimates. Light orange stripes show major drought events. f Spatial variability in SPI derived from the precipitation datasets of all transient climate simulations and presented for the identified major drought events. Black dots indicate Harappan sites during the period of drought, and blue polygon shows extent of Harappan Civilization. g Event-wise spatial variability in DJF mean SST anomalies with highlighted Niño 3.4 and AMO regions.

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