RESEARCH
This laboratory is currently doing focused research towards the regional climate of Indian sub-continent. A significant part of the studies is dedicated towards the inter-annual variability of Indian winter and Indian summer monsoons. Extensive usage of regional climate model for understanding the dynamical and thermo-dynamical processes associated with the monsoons remains important, as the Indian economy still remains heavily dependent upon the rains from the monsoons. From historical times, the monsoons have played an important role in shaping the socio-economic norms across the sub-continent whereby the precipitation has an impact on the irrigation, watershed maintenance, glacier replenishment, ecological services and propensity of disaster impact. The variations in the precipitation patterns result in a huge loss to the exchequer in the forms of floods and droughts. At present, research on the winter time precipitation over northern India remains relatively unexplored, so step to towards its understanding has been taken. The work carried out in this laboratory includes the Regional Climate Model (RegCM) optimization through rigorous sensitivity analysis.
In addition, an increase in the number and intensity of the natural catastrophes over the Indian sub-continent in the form of cloudbursts (Leh, 2010), cyclones (Phalin, 2013), avalanches (Siachen Glacier, 2012) and extreme precipitation leading to landslides (Kedarnath, 2013), it has become imperative to study the weather processes leading to these the extreme events as they lead to huge loss of life and property. Meteorologically, anomalies in the mean climatic trends can be defined as the extreme weather events. This laboratory strives to look into these anomalies in detail for their physical and dynamical properties, characteristics and effects on the weather patterns thus, adding a new dimension to the knowledge known so far. Such studies would be most beneficial for development of mitigation strategies in management of these disasters.
In one of the works carried out in the laboratory, it was focused to understand the interplay of the western disturbances with the Himalayan orography as well as to peep into the precipitation variation temporally and spatially. The dynamical structure of the Western Disturbance in the study revealed a titled axis of low pressure in the vertical atmospheric column. The animation on the home page shows one such migratory Western Disturbance occurrence.
An extensive study has been carried out on understanding the meteorological aspects i.e. causes of the cloudbursts along with their hydrological impacts. The severity of such events need more focused attention from the scientific community. The figure shows various physical and dynamical properties associated with the Leh cloudburst event.
