STUDIES ON DROUGHT CHARACTERISTICS AND CROP YIELDS OVER INDIA

The continuous circulation of water from land, ocean to the atmosphere is known as hydrological cycle. Any perturbation in the hydrological cycle such as changes in rainfall pattern, variations in temperature lead to severe weather consequences regionally as well as globally. Evapotranspiration is a key component in the earth's hydrological cycle which is one of the principal sources of moisturizing the atmosphere. Total evaporation from open water bodies soil and the transpiration from the plants together known as evapotranspiration that varies greatly year to year over a region. The inter-annual variability in evapotranspiration shows impact on the water resource management and on the climate of a region.