hosted and organized by - nersc

Summary Report

hosted and organized by

NANSEN ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTRE – INDIA, Kochi, Kerala, India

and

NANSEN ENVIRONMENTAL AND REMOTE SENSING CENTER, Bergen, Norway

Sponsored by:

Bergen, Norway Bergen, Norway

Nansen Group winter school 2010 Indian Ocean; Challenges in Meteorology and Oceanography

Summary Report 2

RATIONALE The overall objective of the International Winter school “Indian ocean; Challenges in meteorology and oceanography” was to educate students and researchers to gain an improved understanding of the atmospheric and ocean circulation and variability in the Indian Ocean, which is unique among all the world oceans and its response to the monsoon system. The impacts of sea level changes and also increased incidence of algal blooms have profound effect on the ecosystem of the region. All this could be studied by the integrated use of numerical modelling and data assimilation through satellite remote sensing and in situ measurements. Because of the strong interactions existing between the physical, biogeochemical and socio-economic systems, it has become evident to the international scientific community that the future evolution of the Earth system will have to be assessed with detailed interactive and integrated models that simultaneously account for physical, chemical, biological and socio-economic aspects. With this in mind, the Winter school focussed on 5 relevant themes.

1. The Monsoon systems The annual heating/cooling of the Asian continent, the meridional gradient of tropospheric heating and the associated monsoon circulation are the most important aspects of atmospheric circulation. Almost half of the world's population live in areas affected by the Asian summer monsoon, and even slight deviations from the normal monsoon pattern can have great impact on agricultural production, water availability and hydroelectric power generation to name a few. Against the backdrop of rising global surface temperature, the stability of the monsoon rainfall remains to be a puzzle to the scientific community.

2. Indian ocean circulation Recently, the Indian Ocean has been discovered to have a much larger impact on climate variability than what previously thought of. Changing winds and currents in the Indian Ocean during the 1990s have contributed to the observed warming of the ocean during this period. Understanding the cause of this warming and predicting its future evolution are major challenges to the scientific community, as the ocean warming is tied into a much larger global cycle of events. Also the warming of the Indian Ocean has impact on the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) through teleconnection between the low and high latitudes.

3. Sea level change Global average temperature and sea level have increased, and precipitation patterns have changed in the past 50 years. As the earth warms, glaciers and ice sheets melt, releasing fresh water into the oceans. In addition as the water warms it also expands adding to the problem. The Greenland Ice sheet contains enough freshwater to raise global sea levels by 7 m, it is currently responsible for the increase of global sea level of 0.3-0.5mm/yr out of the total of 3mm/year. Most of the world’s largest cities


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containing millions of people lie at or very close to sea level and will therefore be affected by the rising sea level in this century.

4. Algal blooms The changes in SST and level of nutrients have increased the frequency of algal blooms in the marine environment. Some of these algal blooms are harmful to life in one way or other. The exact mechanism by which the harmful algal bloom formation is triggered is still not completely understood. The increase in frequency and severity of the harmful algal blooms world-wide calls for attention by the scientists.

5. Technology The monitoring of the fast evolution of the global environment is essential to assess the anthropogenic effects on the Earth system and to predict its expected responses. Numerical models and Remote sensing technology are essential for analyzing system dynamics and the responses to anthropogenic forcing.

The winter school made an effort to furnish an in-depth analysis of the above mentioned themes by way of invited talks and/or tutorials by 19 expert scientists from India, Norway and South Africa. The winter school gathered 45 Ph.D. or post-doc participants from all over India.

ORGANISATION Winter school was organised by the Nansen Environmental Research Centre, India, in connection with its 10th anniversary. The organizer sincerely thanks the NERCI staff for the practical preparations and arrangements. Initiative, support and encouragement for the winter school was provided by the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen, Norway. The financial support provided by the Nansen Scientific Society and the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center both in Bergen, Norway made the organisation of the winter school hassle free and a great success. The participants were helped to cope up with the hectic schedule of the winter school by way of Yoga class by the famous yogacharya Mr. Prasad. By way of simple yoga techniques, he equipped the participants to attend the sessions with a refreshed mind and body in the morning and settled their overwound minds and bodies in the evening after the day’s class. ORGANISING COMMITTE

1. Prof. Ola M. Johannessen (Chairman), NERSC 2. Dr. N. R. Menon (Co-chairman), NERCI 3. Bente E. Johannessen, NERSC 4. Lasse H Pettersson, NERSC 5. Dr. K. Ajith Joseph, NERCI 6. Dr. Nandini Menon, NERCI


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VENUE The winter school was conducted at Cherai Beach Resort, Kochi, India during 8th to 12th February 2010. Thanks to Mr. Rajan Samuel, Resident manager, Cherai beach resort and his team for efficient logistical arrangements at the Resort, meeting the needs of the teachers and students at the winter school. LECTURE NOTES The working language of the winter school was English. The invited talks in the form of power point presentations and the tutorials given by the lecturers were distributed to the students in CD-ROM.

CERTIFICATE All participants were given a certificate of participation duly signed by the Chairman (Prof. O. M. Johannessen), Co-chairman (Dr. N. R. Menon), Organizer (Dr. Ajith Joseph K) and Co-ordinator (Lasse H Pettersson).

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS A) INVITED LECTURERS

Name Position/ Affiliation

Capt. D.Vijayakumar Director, Naval Operational Data Processing and Analysis Centre and Officer in charge, School of Naval Oceanology and Meteorology, Indian Navy.

Dr.M. Rajeevan Scientist – SG, National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Indian Space Research Organisation, Tirupati

Dr. A.S. Unnikrishnan

Scientist – F, National Institute of Oceanography, Goa

Prof. Ola M. Johannessen

Director, Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center / Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

Prof. N. R. Menon Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board, NERCI & Emeritus Professor, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology.

Prof.P.N. Vinayachandran

Associate Professor, Centre for Atmosphere & Ocean Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Prof. Johnny A. Johannessen

Chairman, Earth Science Advisory Committee, ESA / Research Director, Mohn-Svedrup Center, Bergen /NERSC

Dr. K. Ajith Joseph Director, Nansen Environmental Research Center, India

Dr. Laurent Bertino Research Director, Mohn Sverdrup Centre/Nansen Environmental Remote Sensing Center


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Name Position/ Affiliation

Dr. Annett Samuelsen

Scientist, Mohn Svedrup Centre / NERSC

Dr. Trevor Platt Professor & Exe. Director, Partnership for Observation for Global Oceans, Plymouth Mar. Laboratory

Dr. Shubha Satyendranath

Head of Science for Remote Sensing, Modelling & Optics, Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Dr. Milind Mujumdar Scientist, Indian Inst. of Tropical Meteorology, Pune

Dr. P. S. Swathi Sr. Scientist, CSIR Centre for Mathematical modelling and Computer Simulation, Bangalore

Prof. K. Murali Associate Professor, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai

Lasse H. Pettersson Director, International Relations, Nansen Environmental Remote Sensing Center, Norway

Bjorn Backeberg Dept. of Oceanography, University of Cape Town / Scientist, Mohn Sverdrup Centre, Norway.

Dr. Sathish. C. Shenoi

Director, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, India

Prof. P. V. Joseph Emeritus Professor, Cochin University of Science & Technology, India / Former Director, Indian Meteorological Dept., Pune.

B) STUDENT AND SCIENTIST PARTICIPANTS

Sl. No Name Institute Email

1 Akshansha Chauhan Sharda University, NOIDA [email protected] 2 Anila Alex P CUSAT ,Cochin [email protected]

3 Arun Kumar V.V Andhra University, Vizag [email protected]

4 Beena T. Balan SNG College ,Kolencheri [email protected]

5 Binosh Srambickal NIO - RC, Kochi [email protected]

6 Bishnu Kumar IIT Kharagpur [email protected]

7 Charlotte Sajan Kurian CUSAT,Cochin [email protected]

8 Damodar Ganji J.N.T.Univ, Hyderabad [email protected]

9 Dhrubajyoti Samanta IIT Kharagpur [email protected]

10 Diraviya Raj SDMI, Tuticorin [email protected]

11 Harikrishnan Gandham Andhra University, Vizag [email protected]

12 Jayakumar. A IITM, Pune [email protected] 13 Johnson Zacharia CUSAT, Cochin [email protected]

14 Lorna R. Nayagam CUSAT, Cochin [email protected]

15 Madhavan Narayanan Anna University, Chennai [email protected]

16 Madhu Vazhathottathil CUSAT ,Cochin [email protected]

17 Manish Sharma Sharda University, NOIDA manish.sharma@sharda.

18 Mary Swapna George NERSC, BERGEN [email protected]

19 Mathews Gilbert SDMI, Tuticorin [email protected]

20 Naresh Krishna Vissa IIT Kharagpur [email protected]

21 Neethu Chacko INCOIS [email protected]

22 Nehru Machineni TERI University [email protected]

23 Nisha Kurian NIO, Goa [email protected]

24 Prabhakar Mekala J.N.T.Univ, Hyderabad [email protected]


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Sl. No Name Institute Email 25 Pramod Valiaparambil NPOL, Cochin [email protected]

26 Pranab Deb IIT, Kharagpur [email protected] 27 Rajesh J CUSAT, Cochin [email protected]

28 Ravindra Babu J.N.T.Univ, Hyderabad [email protected]

29 Sanal Kumar V. JKHSS, Ernakulam [email protected]

30 Satish Sottu J.N.T.Univ, Hyderabad [email protected]

31 Saurabh Bhardwaj TERI University [email protected]

32 Shailendra Kumar NIT, Patna [email protected]

33 Smitha Ammamkuziyil CUSAT, Cochin [email protected]

34 Smitha Bal Raj CMLRE, Kochi [email protected]

35 Sourav Sil IIT Kharagpur [email protected]

36 Subin. K MG University, XX [email protected]

37 Sudip Jana IIT Kharagpur [email protected]

38 Sumesh Kuranhiyoor NIO, Goa [email protected]

39 Suneel Vasimalla NIO, Goa [email protected]

40 Sunny Joseph KE College, Kottayam [email protected]

41 Venkata Ramu Andhra University, Vizag [email protected] 42 Madhusoodanan M.S NERC(I), Cochin [email protected] 43 Nandini Menon N NERC(I), Cochin [email protected] 44 Chiranjivi Jayaram NERC(I) / CUSAT, Cochin [email protected] 45 Geetu RoseVarghese NERC(I), Cochin [email protected]

Winter School programme and content DAY 1 - 8TH FEBRUARY 2010 The five days of residential programme started with a formal inauguration.

Dr. Ajith Joseph, Director, NERCI welcomed the participants of the winter school and the duty of official inauguration was done by Dr. N. Chandra Mohana Kumar, Registrar, Cochin University of Science and Technology on 8th February. He outlined the recent catastrophes that have taken place globally and emphasised that the conduct of this winter school is timely. He expressed hope that the interaction and collaborative research between the Indian and Norwegian scientists will be helpful in unravelling the tele-connection mechanisms between the low and high latitudes. A Memorandum of understanding between Cochin University of Science and Technology, India; University of Bergen, Norway; Nansen Environmental


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Research Centre India, Cochin, India; and Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre, Bergen, Norway was renewed and signed between the Indo-Norwegian parties.

The inaugural function was followed by the Key note address by Capt. D. Vijayakumar, titled “Nowcasting to Forecasting – needs and challenges in the Indian Ocean”. He gave an overview of the various forecasting techniques now in operation and their efficiency in predictions. He further emphasised the need to prioritise nowcasting so that adequate information is available for disaster mitigation as well as routine monitoring of the vast ocean regions and phenomena like monsoon. Next talk of the day was by Dr. M. Rajeevan. His talk was on “The Indian Monsoon System”. He talked about the Indian monsoon, its interannual variability, relationship with El Nino, Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), Indian ocean sea surface temperature and the statistical models for the prediction of monsoon. Dr. A. S. Unnikrishnan was the next invited speaker who gave a lecture on the topic “Sea level changes in the Indian Ocean”. His talk focused on the sea-level changes along the Indian coast. He emphasised the measurement and analyses using tide –gauges, developed by the NIO. Prof. Ola. M. Johannessen’s talk on “Greenland ice sheet: Potential impacts on the global sea level” was a completely new experience to the Indian students. He presented the impacts of sea ice melting and ended with a challenge to develop improved glacier and ice sheet models to assess the impact of sea level change.


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DAY 2 – 9TH FEBRUARY 2010

Last talk of the first day was by Prof. (Dr.) N. R. Menon. His topic was: “Harmful algal blooms in the Indian seas”. The study was based entirely on in situ observations of algal blooms in the Indian EEZ during the period 1998 – 2003. First lecture of the second day was by Dr. P. N. Vinayachandran, entitled “Modelling - Indian ocean monsoon circulation”. He presented the applications of Indian ocean models taking three examples – Arabian sea mini warm pool, IOD and intra-seasonal cooling in southern Indian ocean. Dr. Johnny Johannessen, in his talk on “ESA's Earth Remote Sensing programme”, gave an overview of the Remote sensing programmes executed by the European Space Agency. Keeping in line with the European remote sensing programme, the major achievements of India and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the remote sensing of oceans was presented by Dr. Ajith Joseph. K in his lecture entitled “Indian Earth Remoste sensing programme – ocean application perspective”. Dr. Laurent Bertino conducted two tutorials. In the first one titled “Ocean and Climate modelling”, he covered the basics of modelling like purpose of ocean models, numerical choices, set up and validation and explained these with the help of ocean model examples. In the second one entitled ‘Data assimilation in ocean modelling’, he first outlined the


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theoretical background, then explained the existing data assimilation methods and demonstrated using examples of application like TOPAZ and practical problems to students.

Next was a “Tutorial on Ecosystem modelling” by Dr. Annette Samuelsen. She presented the formulation of bio-physical models based on the relationship between the various components of an ecosystem and also the development of complexity in a model which incorporates more and more functions of the ecosystem into mathematical calculations. Highlight of evening session was the lectures by Dr. Trevor Platt and Dr. Subha Satyendranath. Dr. Platt spoke about “Ecological indicators from Ocean colour and SST”. He gave emphasis on the pelagic indicators, which could be retrieved, from ocean colour and SST and how this information could be used in fisheries and climate studies. Title of Dr. Subha Satyendranath’s lecture was “Phytoplankton functional types from Remote sensing”. She spoke about the efficacy of ocean colour as a tool for diagnosing phytoplankton community structure from space. She also pointed out the emergence of abundance-based and spectral characteristics based algorithms, and extraction of phytoplankton community structure from ocean colour.


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After two hectic days of lectures and tutorials, the participants were given a chance to relax and refresh by enjoying the banquet dinner and Kerala cultural programme performed by friends and children of NERCI staff.

DAY 3 – 10TH FEBRUARY 2010 Five discussion groups based on the five theme titles were formed and each group included 8-9 student participants taking into consideration the area of their work. Each group discussed among themselves and formulated questions based on the lectures presented till then. The questions arising from the group discussions made the morning session vibrant with the enthusiastic participation of the students. Dr. Ajith Joseph and Lasse Pettersson moderated the discussions.

Rest of the morning was devoted to poster presentation by the students. Each student was given “two minutes” to introduce himself/herself and explain his/her PhD project including the motivation, data, method and progress or preliminary results. Everyone was encouraged to ask questions on the posters presented. The students and lecturers used the rest of the morning session to discuss the content of the posters and ongoing research issues.


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Some student posters presented Title of poster Name of the authors

Oceanic water circulation, salinity, temperature and global air circulation

V. Sanal Kumar

Regional application for the effective utilization of water resources by fuzzy modelling using optimisation techniques in the context of global warming

Beena. T. Balan

Intra-seasonal oscillations of total ozone over the Indian region during the dry monsoon year 2002 – A study based on Morlet wavelet analysis

V. Madhu and V. Sabeer

A comparative study of mixed layer depth for Indian ocean using two different climatologies

Naresh Krishna Vissa, A. N. V Satyanarayana, B. Prasad Kumar

Diagnosis of the oceanic features of the Bay of Bengal and Numerical simulation using regional ocean modelling system (ROMS)

Saurav Sil & A. Chakraborty

Variation of heat content in the Bay of Bengal using high resolution regional model

Bishnu Kumar & A. Chakraborty

Data assimilation and ocean modelling Sudip Jana & A. Chakraborty

Observed inter-annual variability of thermohaline structure in the south eastern Arabian sea

Nisha Kurian and V. Suneel

Variation of latent heat flux over tropical Indian ocean: a case study using TMI observations

Dhrubajyoti Samanta, Mihir K. Dash, A. Chakraborty & P. C. Pandey

Influence of wind on surface chlorophyll distribution in the Bay of Bengal

Smitha A

Influence of density stratification on the upwelling Kelvin wave speed along the Indian equatorial wave guide during January to March

Johnson Zacharia & C. K. Rajan

Teleconnection between the variation of ITCZ over the Indian ocean and the pressure field over the southern ocean

Pranab Deb & Mihir K. Dash

The biological activities in the southern tropical Indian ocean and its modulation by changing interannual forcing.

A. Jayakumar & C. Gnanaseelan

A hybrid coordinate ocean model (HYCOM) for the Indian ocean region.

Mary Swapna George, Laurent Bertino, O. M. Johannessen & A. Samuelsen

Coastal upwelling of the south eastern Arabian sea – an integrated approach

Smitha. B. R.

First lecture of the afternoon session was by Dr. Milind Mujumdar on the topic “Monsoon modelling".


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DAY 4 – 11TH FEBRUARY 2010

Next was an extensive tutorial session by Dr. P. S. Swathi on the topic “Flexible Modeling system for shallow waters-Indian ocean perspective”. Dr. K. Murali was the last speaker of the day who also conducted a tutorial on the topic “Sea level change - storm surge modelling”. First lecture on the 4th day was delivered by Lasse H. Pettersson on behalf of Dr. Anton Kjelaas on the topic “Coastal Radar (CODAR) applications”. He talked about the HF – Radar monitoring systems for coastal management. He demonstrated how it is used in marine sanctuary mapping, oil spill simulation, tsunami detection, wave measurements etc. L.H. Pettersson delivered a second tutorial on the same day entitled “Ocean Colour applications” in which he emphasised the use of ocean colour satellite data for monitoring of algal blooms in marine and coastal waters. Dr. Johnny Johannessen gave two tutorials on the fourth day. First was on “Sea surface temperature retrieval”. He outlined the tutorial starting with principles of optical and passive radiometry and ended with the present and future SST observations and its applications. Second tutorial was on “SAR data processing and applications”.


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DAY 5 – 12TH FEBRUARY 2010 Last day was marked by lectures from two stalwarts in meteorology – Dr. S. C. Shenoi from INCOIS and Prof. P. V. Joseph from CUSAT.

Next tutorial was by Bjorn Backeberg. He taught about “Radar altimetry” by stating in detail its principles, its applications and stated how it is one of the most successful remote sensing techniques.

Last tutorial of the day was by Prof. Ola. M. Johannessen. The title of his lecture was “Sea ice in the Arctic- Arctic Roos”. He enlightened the students about the ocean observing system, Arctic ROOS. Dr. Shenoi gave a lecture on the topic “Large scale coastal currents around India”. He gave an overview of the direction of the currents, periodicity, geostrophy, how they change during monsoon and how they are different from currents of the other regions of the world. Prof. P. V. Joseph gave an exhaustive lecture on ‘The influence of oceans on the Indian summer monsoon’. He began with the onset of monsoon, monsoon rainfall, its inter-annual and intra-seasonal variability, then proceeded on to the impact of the rapid warming of the equatorial Indian ocean SST on monsoon and ended by explaining the current scenario of monsoon meteorology and the remote sensing methods for its predictions.


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This was followed by an open discussion session between the speakers and the students, moderated by Dr. K. Ajith Joseph and Lasse H. Pettersson.

Closing Ceremony Prof. Johnny A. Johannessen summarized experiences from the winter school in a felicitation to the participants. A certificate of participation was issued and presented to all participants by Mrs. Bente E. Johannessen and Prof. Ola M. Johannessen. The Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee Lasse H. Pettersson officially closed the school.

The participants also posed for a group photo before departure.


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Survey of Participation A questionnaire was delivered to all participants requesting their feedback on their benefit and lacks of the winter school. 70 % of the participants responded to this survey. Questions to the attendees Strongly

disagree (%)

Disagree (%)

No strong opinion

(%)

Agree (%)

Strongly agree (%)

Was the school useful for your current post graduate studies/position?

3 3 31 62

Did it provide you with useful skills and experiences for your career?

21 48 31

Did it contribute to improve your confidence in communication of ideas to a range of audience?

17 48 34

Did it improve your collaboration skills?

21 48 31

Did it contribute to improve your confidence develop professional relationships and networks?

3 7 52 34

Some of the other feed-backs received from the participants were:

• Everyone rated the winter school as excellent with respect to quality of the lectures and the speakers.

• All of them were satisfied with the organisation of the school. • Almost all lectures were interesting to them. But the number of tutorials was less

interesting when compared to general lectures. Most of them preferred hands on training on using the software and models that were presented and discussed.

• Majority feels that there should be more interactive communication with the lecturers so that they would be able to develop professional relationships and network.

• All school attendees expressed their satisfaction and gratitude to the school organizers and sponsors.


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Photo: http://www.cheraibeachresorts.com/

Nansen Environmental Research Centre – India

Director: Dr. K. Ajith Joseph

Gopal Residency II Floor, Thotekkat Road

Ernakulam, Kochi-‐682011, Kerala, INDIA

http://www.nerci.in

Phone: +91-‐484-‐2383351/94473-‐25564 Fax: +91-‐484-‐2353124

e-‐mail: [email protected]

NERCI is a partner in the Nansen Group of research institutes led by Prof. Ola M. Johannessen, also comprising:

Nansen

Environmental and Remote Sensing

Center Bergen, Norway

http://www.nersc.no

Nansen International Environmental and

Remote Sensing Centre

St. Petersburg Russia http://www.niersc.spb.ru/

Nansen-Zhu International

Research Centre Beijing, China

http://nzc.iap.ac.cn

Nansen-Tutu Centre for Marine

Environmental Research

Cape Town, South Africa

Nansen Scientific Society

Bergen, Norway

hosted and organized by - nersc

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