While the climate change is global, its manifestation is spatially inhomogeneous regionally. Despite of past efforts, important questions remain unresolved in understanding the climate dynamics of Indian region. The research groups in IDPCS choose problems across different scales that are either overlooked or are proving to be the bottleneck in our current understanding of climate. Cloud and Monsoon dynamics: Clouds are proving to be a notoriously hard problem both for monsoon forecasts as well as for climate projections. We study development and growth of different types of clouds and their intricate microphysics to identify their novel dynamics and the role they play in development of storms. We also study mechanisms of multi-scale cloud-circulation coupling to identify and simulate their effect on sub-seasonal monsoon variability. Ocean Dynamics and Mixing: The complex interactions between Indian monsoon and conditions in oceans surrounding India have been one of the key missing pieces in better forecasting the seasonal development of monsoons. We have identified the differing role of Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal in monsoon dynamics. The state of the ocean and its vertical structure has an important bearing on ocean dynamics. Our efforts have lead to not only improvement in ocean mixing models but also to our understanding of broader aspects of how rotating convection is modulated by waves and eddies. Land-Atmosphere interactions: For a long time, role of local land-atmosphere interactions on large-scale structure of monsoon was overlooked. For the first time, we showed that the variability in local influences through irrigation and agricultural practices fundamentally affects sub-seasonal and seasonal characteristics of monsoon. Furthermore, the influence of re-cycling of water is non-trivial and in-fact may affect synoptic rainfall events including Cyclones. Climate Change: The spatial manifestation of global warming and its links to the pattern effects (spatial patterns of surface warming) are not understood well. Our recent work proposed updated estimates of Equilibrium climate sensitivity considering the pattern effects. We also develop simple models to better understand and represent complex climate interactions and temporally evolving patterns of forcings and warming.
Sub-Research Areas
- Clouds and Monsoon Dynamics
- Climate Change Land-Atmosphere interactions
- Ocean dynamics and Mixing
- Weather and Climate Modeling