New Delhi: Highlighting the hazards of air pollution, a new study has found that Asian summer monsoon rainfall has been decreasing over the past 80 years due to human-caused air pollution causing regional droughts. The Asian summer monsoon affects nearly half of the world’s population and accounts for the bulk of rainfall over Asia in the summer months. Both South-Asian monsoon and East-Asian monsoon are jointly referred to as Asian summer monsoon, even though they differ in dates of their onset, decay and amount of precipitation. Studies suggest that the East Asian monsoon even manifests unique characteristics as compared to its South Asian counterpart. Several factors are thought to affect the strength of the monsoon, including solar variability, volcanic eruptions and anthropogenic aerosols.

Source: Mint May 17, 2019 06:11 UTC