International Workshop on Stratosphere-Troposphere Interactions and Prediction of Monsoon weather EXtremes (STIPMEX) 

International Workshop on Stratosphere-Troposphere Interactions and Prediction of Monsoon weather EXtremes (STIPMEX) was held at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India. during 02-07 June 2024. 

Several experts from around the world deliberated on these and related topics which led to an exchange of knowledge across different institutions globally. Around 310 participants from India and 14 different countries of Asian, European, American, and African continents attended the International workshop.  The workshop and its themes (1) Stratosphere-Troposphere Interactions and (2) Prediction of Monsoon weather Extremes have a global importance. Training (hands-on and lectures) on the two above themes was given to the students and early career scientists.

Over past few decades Asian region including India is experiencing extreme weather systems causing unprecedented damage of public property and loss of life due to the unprecedented heavy rainfalls. The current major concern of our society has become to find ways to manage the enhanced frequency of extreme events affecting human lives and property. The NWP models have shown significant improvement in the skill over past few decades but predicting a localized extreme event with longer lead time, still remains a challenge. In these lines of prediction of monsoon extremes, recent research reveals that the stratospheric processes are important for improving the predictability of the troposphere including monsoon. However, the complexities of the underlying mechanisms of stratosphere-troposphere coupling processes are difficult to incorporate in NWP models. Stratospheric chemistry controls the magnitude and distribution of many important forcing agents in the troposphere. Influence of stratospheric variability such as sudden stratospheric warmings and their subsequent impact on the troposphere or the quasi-biennial oscillation and its associated teleconnections show association on Indian summer monsoon rainfall variability. The impacts of stratospheric aerosols and water vapor are also important for Indian summer monsoon due to their contributions to radiative forcing. The deliberations in the STIPMEX workshop by the experts on stratospheric-tropospheric interactions  and prediction of monsoon weather extremes will bridge the gap of inclusion of stratospheric and tropospheric processes in the NWP models for better prediction of monsoon extremes.

Considering above challenges in mind and the importance of the topic of the STIPMEX workshop, it was supported by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, WMO, WWRP, WCRP, APARC, and Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. The papers presented in the STIPMEX will be published in a special issue of 'Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics' after peer review. The STIPMEX workshop has an overwhelming response from national and international scientists and students.

For more details about STIPMEX, please visit Event website:  https://sparc-extreme.tropmet.res.in/

Photographs of Events (day-wise) are available on the website.
https://sparc-extreme.tropmet.res.in/photo-gallery

Day-wise YouTube Streaming