India, Nov. 9 -- A new study by scientists from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, has decoded how long land "remembers" past rainfall events, offering deeper insights into how soil moisture influences local weather and broader climate patterns. The research found that soil moisture across India's core monsoon zone retains traces of past rainfall for nearly 35 days - a duration that is shorter but considered more realistic than earlier scientific estimates.

Published in Physical Review Letters on October 14 and made available online on November 4, the study titled "Persistence in Physical Systems: An Application to Soil Moisture Memory" introduces a novel framework to measure memory in natural systems using the pr...