The increasing awareness of a changing climate and the role played in it by water vapour and clouds has elevated the interest in water vapour and cloud-related studies in atmospheric science. Global warming is now a phenomenon existing beyond any doubt and there is indeed a steady increase in global temperatures over the past few decades. Monitoring of upper tropospheric water vapour and clouds in a scenario of changing climate plays a central role in the prediction of future climate, which is large because of its sensitivity to outgoing longwave radiation. SRA group focuses on understanding the role of water vapour and clouds in the climate system and the factors that modulate their change and variability within the troposphere/lower stratosphere over the Asian monsoon region. Specifically, we look into the variability of clouds, water vapour, and other trace gases in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) and their transport processes and association with various climatic conditions. Another aspect of interest is the study of extreme rainfall events during the monsoon season and the underlying factors which trigger them. In this regard, we use high horizontal and temporal resolution geostationary satellite observations to track mesoscale convective cloud systems. We use historical satellite and model datasets to achieve the above objectives. The observations will be combined with climate model outputs and dedicated Lagrangian trajectory modelling to understand the various atmospheric processes.

Team