SCIENCE LECTURE SERIES
Prof. R. Ananthakrishnan Seminar Series
Lecture-1 (15 Jan. 2018)
Lecture-2 (9 Mar. 2018)
A Lecture series on "Artificial Neural Network (ANN)" by Dr. J. R. Kulkarni, Scientist, IITM (Retd.) was held at IITM during 5-9 Mar. 2018
RAC Meeting : POSTERS
REAL TIME FORECAST
Extended Range Prediction System
Short Range Ensemble Prediction System
E-NEWSLETTER
Surf Ocean Digest: Quarterly Newsletter of Ocean Society of India, Pune Chapter at IITM (Vol.5, Iss. 1, Feb. 2018)
IITM Publication Highlights
How Does Indian Teak respond to Synoptic Rainfall Variation in multi-decadal Time Scale?
Monsoon (June-October) and Post monsoon (October-.November) rainfall amount in south east India exhibit distinct spatial and temporal trends. However, studies are extremely rare on whether similar synoptic scale rainfall variation also exist in multi-decadal time scale beyond the period of instrumental observation. This is possibly due to paucity of annually resolved proxy data from suitable locations. Towards this, tree ring data (~200 years) of Indian Teak (Tectona Grandis L.f.) generated from four locations is presented in this study. The locations are situated from east coast of India to Inland along a south east North West transect. The primary objective of this work is to understand how ring width index data respond to temperature and precipitation in synoptic scale. Ring width data show moderately positive response to monsoon rainfall and negative response to summer (March- May) temperature for all stations suggesting moisture deficit in warm summer.
Ring width indices also exhibit positive response with post monsoon rainfall at coastal location but the response gradually reduces towards inland. This preliminary study, thus, suggests that Indian teak has a potential to capture signals of the synoptic variation of post monsoon rainfall from coast to inland.
(Sengupta S., Borgaonkar H.P., Joy R.M., Ram S., Theor. Appl. Climatol., November, 2017)
Linkages of subtropical stratospheric intraseasonal intrusions with Indian summer monsoon deficit rainfall
The authors investigate the life cycle of a strong subtropical stratospheric intrusion event and propose a hypothesis through which might reduce the intensity of the Indian-summer-monsoon rainfall (ISMR) after the monsoon onset during June 2014. The diagnostic analysis of ERA-Interim data revealed that stratospheric intrusion occurs in the region of Subtropical Westerly Jet (SWJ) due to Rossby Wave Breaking (RWB). The RWB event is associated with eddy shedding. These eddies transport extratropical stratospheric mass and energy fluxes downward and southward to North India (NI). As a result, the intrusion spread dry, cold and ozone rich air deep into the troposphere (~500hPa) over the NI. It enhances the static stability and weakens the North-South upper tropospheric temperature gradient. The intrusion of cold and dry air persisted for the entire June which might have inhibited northward propagation of ISM convection and could be responsible for prolonged hiatus in northward phase propagation of the ISM after onset. We also investigate the relation between stratospheric intrusion events and ISMR from long term data (1979-2007). Our analysis shows that the stronger negative anomalies of rainfall are associated with stratospheric intrusions during break spells. Thus study reveals that stratospheric intrusion is an important factor that may influence ISMR deficit.
(Fadnavis S., Chattopadhyay R., Journal of Climate, July 2017)
Moisture index during the last two centuries inferred from Western Himalaya tree growth, India
Aregionaltree-ring chronology prepared from two species (Piceasmithiana and Cedrusdeodara) over western Himalaya has been used in relation to climate fluctuations in present study. This analysis shows that moisture index and rainfall during (February to May) have significant positive relationship whereas temperature and heat index showed negative relationship with trees growth. But, moisture and heat index indicate more impact to trees growth than rainfall and temperature. The strong association of tree-rings chronology with moisture demonstrates that tree-rings are much more sensitivity to availability of moisture at trees root zone which enabled us to extend it back to AD 1789; consecutive two years moisture deficiency during 1846-1847, 1908-1909, 1921-1922, 1931-1932, 1947-1948, and 1966-1967 was noticed in the present reconstruction. (Somaru Ram and H.P. Borgaonkar, online June 2017)
New Publications
Winter burst of Pristine Kashmir Valley air
Hakim Z.Q., Beig G., Reka S., Romsho S.A., Rashid I., Scientific Reports, 8:3329, February 2018, 1-7
Equatorial Indian Ocean subsurface current variability in an Ocean General Circulation Model
Gnanaseelan C., Deshpande A., Climate Dynamics, 50 March 2018, 1705-1717
Scattering and absorption characteristics of aerosols at an urban megacity over IGB: Implications to radiative forcing
Srivastava A.K., Bisht D.S., Singh S., Kishore N., Soni V.K., Singh Siddhartha, Tiwari S., Atmospheric Research, 205, June 2018, 107-117
Assessment of regional downscaling simulations for long term mean, excess and deficit Indian Summer Monsoons
Varikoden H., Mujumdar, M., Revadekar J.V., Sooraj K.P., Ramarao M.V.S., Sanjay J., Krishnan R., Global and Planetary Change, 162, March 2018, 28-38
IITM Events
Inauguration of first Multi Petaflop Supercomputer of India at IITM
India's first Multi Petaflop Supercomputer : "PRATYUSH" HPC System was dedicated to Nation by Dr Harsh Vardhan, Hon'ble Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest and Climate Change, GoI on 8th Jan 2018 at IITM Pune.
IITM Film "SAFAR -An Environmental Warrior" received the "Certificate of Merit
A short film on SAFAR- Ahmedabad entitled, "SAFAR -An Environmental Warrior" received the "Certificate of Merit" by Vigyan Prasar, DST, Govt. of India, awarded during 8th National Science Film Festival -2018, held at University of Gauhati, Guwahati (Assam) during February 20-24, 2018. The film was shortlisted by Vigyan Prasar for screening and nominated under category "A" (films by Govt. and non-Govt. Institutions) during 8th NSFF 2018.
National Science Day 2018 celebration at IITM
IITM celebrated National Science day 2018 as an open day on 28th February at its premises. Students from various schools and colleges, and public in general visited the institute on this occasion. Visitors were taken on guided tour to different laboratories and facilities at the institute. IITM scientists and researchers demonstrated and explained different aspects of weather and climate sciences to these visitors.
IITM Participation at GMRT for Science Day 2018
IITM participated in a National Science Day Exhibition organized by NCRA, TIFR. The exhinition took place at GMRT, Khodad, Narayangaon during 28 February and 1 March 2018. More than 15000 students/general public visited the Scientific stalls of various schools and colleges, universities, institutes