Megamenu

Body

Partner Agency Areas of Cooperation
Date of Signature
Major accomplishments
Natural Environment
Research Council (NERC)

MoU on Cooperation in Earth
Sciences.

 


March 1, 2013 extended by 5
years till Mar 2023.

IA on “Atmospheric Pollution and Human Health in an Indian Megacity” (APHH) includes 5 well-coordinated and cross-cutting research projects, involving 4 Agencies from UK and India, with 4 years duration and with the main focus on the megacity New Delhi. The 5 projects are focusing on PM sources, Emissions & impacts, Secondary pollutants and integrated solutions, Health effects, and Interventions and mitigations. Three field campaigns were held in Delhi during November 2017-February 2018, May-June 2018 and November 2018- January 2019. While the observational part is mostly completed, some laboratory analysis work is yet to be completed. An international workshop with various stakeholders planed in March 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19.
 
IA on “Predicting the Variability of the South Asian Monsoon”: Three projects involving Indian and UK scientists were undertaken under this IA namely South West Asian Aerosol Monsoon Interaction (SWAAMI) Experiment, Bay of Bengal Boundary Layer Experiment (BOBBLE), and Monsoon dynamics and thermodynamics from the land surface, through convection to the continental-scale (INCOMPASS) with an aim to study different aspects of physical processes affecting the monsoon and to address the issue of better measurement and understanding of small-scale processes that drive the variability, seasonality and predictability in the South Asian Monsoon. To achieve this a large-scale joint observational campaign involving UK’s BAe-146- 301 atmospheric research and India’s Sagar Nidhi and Sindhu Sadhna research ships was carried out during the period June-July 2016. A review of the three projects was done during July 26, 2018 at IISc Bangalore. The PIs are working on analyzing the data and over 50 publications have been brought out in the form of reports and papers.
 
Met Office, UK

MoU on cooperation in Weather

and Climate Sciences.

 

January 28, 2019.

Under this IA, a science plan consisting of 3 work packages was finalized with a focus on enhancing our capabilities in modelling high impact weather and inform services that help reduce exposure to damaging weather and climate impacts like the flooding during the South Asian summer monsoon, lightning and landslides; tropical cyclones bringing heavy rains, storm surges/flooding and strong winds; drought; hail and dust storms.
 
A coupled ensemble data assimilation prediction system using the NEMO based high resolution global ocean model at ORCA12 configuration and surface boundary condition from the NCMRWF Unified Model (NCUM) has been developed. Delhi sub-km resolution model with chemistry-aerosol (DM- Chem) components and revised visibility parameterization has been tested during winter season 2020. Coupled model evaluation and inter-comparisons from seasonal prediction perspective between the UK Met Office GloSea5 seasonal prediction model and MoES CFSv2 was compared and error growth analyzed.
 
Executive committee comprising of senior representatives from MoES and UK Met Office meet every 6 months through VC to discuss the progress of the work packages and future events. Impact based Forecasting workshop with participants from both India and UK organized at IITM Pune in the last week of November 2019 deliberated on ways to improve impact-based forecast and also future trends on extreme events in the backdrop of climate change. Two Annual Science workshop of WCSSP India program have been organized in 2020 (on-site) and 2021 (virtual) hosted by IITM Pune and all the Indian and UK scientists involved in the programme participated in the workshop. During the workshop progress of all the three work-packages under the programme was reviewed by 4-member Science Review panel. The IA has contributed in establishing a coupled system and data on severe weather has been shared to develop impact-based forecasting tools.