Dr. Syam Sankar Doctorate in Marine Sciences From Goa University, Goa. He joined Nansen Environmental Research Centre – India in 2012 as a Project Scientist. Had been working at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) as a Project Scientist before joining NERCI. He has completed his doctoral thesis titled “Annual and interannual variability of air-sea interaction processes over Indian Ocean in relation to monsoon activity in the Indian Subcontinent” at the Physical Oceanography Division of National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa. He has sufficient experience in studying the air-sea interaction... Read More...

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Dr. Syam Sankar Doctorate in Marine Sciences From Goa University, Goa. He joined Nansen Environmental Research Centre – India in 2012 as a Project Scientist. Had been working at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) as a Project Scientist before joining NERCI. He has completed his doctoral thesis titled “Annual and interannual variability of air-sea interaction processes over Indian Ocean in relation to monsoon activity in the Indian Subcontinent” at the Physical Oceanography Division of National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa. He has sufficient experience in studying the air-sea interaction processes over the Indian Ocean and their impacts on the Indian subcontinent during the monsoon season. He also has experience in implementing the NCEP Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS) on the IBM HPC at NCMRWF.

Research Interest:

Atmospheric modelling, Air-sea interaction and Indian monsoon variability.

Recent Publications:

M. R. Ramesh Kumar, Syam Sankar and Chris Reason, 2012 : Is an onset vortex impportant for monsoon onset over Kerala?, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, DOI 10.1007/s00704-012-0598-x.

M.R. Ramesh Kumar, Abhay Devasthale, G. Levy, Syam Sankar, S. Bakan and H. Grassl, 2011: multi-sensor climatological view of double ITCZs over the Indian Ocean, International Journal or Remote Sensing, DOI:10.1080/01431161.2011.625056.

Syam Sankar, M.R. Ramesh Kumar and Chris Reason, 2010: On the relative roles of El Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole events on the Monsoon onset over Kerala, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 103:359-374, DOI 10/1007/s00704-010-0306-7.

M.R. Ramesh Kumar and Syam Sankar, 2010: Impact of global warming on cyclonic storms over north Indian Ocean, Indian Journal of Geo-Marine Sciences, Vol. 39(4), pp. 516-520.

M.R. Ramesh Kumar, Krishnan. R, Syam Sankar, Unnikrishnan A.S, Pai D.S, 2009: Increasing trend of “Break-Monsoon” conditions over India—Role of Ocean–Atmosphere Processes in the Indian Ocean, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 6, 332-336.

M.R. Ramesh Kumar, Syam Sankar and Chris Reason, 2009: An investigation into the Conditions Leading to Monsoon Onset over Kerala, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 95(1-2); 69-82.

M. R. Ramesh Kumar, Syam Sankar, K. Fennig, D. S. Pai, and J. Schulz, 2005: Air-sea interaction over the Indian Ocean during the contrasting monsoon years 2002 and 2003, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 32, L14821, doi: 10.1029/2005GL022587.

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Dr. Smitha A Doctorate in Atmospheric Science from the Cochin University of Science and Technology in 2017, on “Wind induced upwelling and the response of surface chlorophyll in the Bay of Bengal”. Currently working in NERCI as DST SERB sponsored National Post Doctoral Fellow on “Impact of the developing hypoxia on primary productivity in the Eastern Arabian Sea -Implications on fishery”. Concurrent to her Ph.D. work, she also worked in NERCI in two consecutive projects funded by SAC-ISRO and European Union FP7 project INDO-MARECLIM. Ms. Smitha received the NF-POGO (Nippon Foundation - Partnership for Observation of Global Oceans) Read More...

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Dr. Smitha A Doctorate in Atmospheric Science from the Cochin University of Science and Technology in 2017, on “Wind induced upwelling and the response of surface chlorophyll in the Bay of Bengal”. Currently working in NERCI as DST SERB sponsored National Post Doctoral Fellow on “Impact of the developing hypoxia on primary productivity in the Eastern Arabian Sea -Implications on fishery”. Concurrent to her Ph.D. work, she also worked in NERCI in two consecutive projects funded by SAC-ISRO and European Union FP7 project INDO-MARECLIM. Ms. Smitha received the NF-POGO (Nippon Foundation - Partnership for Observation of Global Oceans) fellowship in 2013 to carry out research in the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK on “Satellite data processing, interpretation and the modelling of primary production”. She also worked in the Oceanography Division of National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC, ISRO), Hyderabad.

Research Interest:

Physical oceanography, air-sea interaction, ocean colour studies, satellite remote sensing

Recent Publications:

Smitha A., Syam S., Nandini N. Menon, and Lasse H. Pettersson, Using remote sensing to study phytoplankton biomass and its influence on herbivore fishery in the South-Eastern Arabian Sea, Remote Sensing of the Asian Seas, Vittorio Barale & Martin Gade (Eds.), Springer (accepted).

Smitha A., Syam Sankar and Nandini Menon N, 2018. Impact of tropical Indian Ocean warming on phytoplankton biomass concentration in the south eastern Arabian Sea using satellite observations, Book of Abstracts, SAFARI 2 - Remote sensing for Ecosystem Analysis and Fisheries, 15-17 Jan 2018, Kochi.

Syam Sankar, Nandini Menon N, Smitha A, Annette Samuelsen and Lasse H. Pettersson, 2018. Does Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) regulate the annual Oil Sardine (Sardinella longiceps) landings in Kerala?, Book of Abstracts, SAFARI 2 - Remote sensing for Ecosystem Analysis and Fisheries, 15-17 Jan 2018, Kochi.

Menon, Nandini N., Syam Sankar, Smitha A., Grinson George, Shubha Sathyendranath and Trevor Platt 2017. Application of phytoplankton biomass as an aid in management of marine resources of the southeastern Arabian Sea. Book of abstracts of ICES/PICES International Symposium on “Drivers of dynamics of small pelagic fish resources”, Victoria, Canada, 6-11 Mar 2017.

Smitha A., Ajith Joseph K, Chiranjivi Jayaram and AN Balchand, Upwelling in the southeastern Arabian Sea as evidenced by Ekman mass transport using wind observations from OCEANSAT–II Scatterometer, Indian J. Mar. Sci., 43(1), 2014, pp. 111-116.

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Dr. Abish B Doctorate in Atmospheric Science from Cochin University of Science and Technology (2008-2011), with CSIR fellowship. The outcome of his research advances knowledge on the aerosol-cloud interactions and its influence on the atmospheric circulations, which is a least explored facet over the location. During his MTech dissertation at Space Physics Laboratory, (VSSC, Trivandrum), he was entrusted to associate with the ISRO-GBP land campaign, which was a major campaign conducted at the Indo-Gangetic Plain. He joined NERCI, after gaining experience in working in several projects at Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS, Trivandrum) and National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL, Bangalore). Read More...

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Dr. Abish B Doctorate in Atmospheric Science from Cochin University of Science and Technology (2008-2011), with CSIR fellowship. The outcome of his research advances knowledge on the aerosol-cloud interactions and its influence on the atmospheric circulations, which is a least explored facet over the location. During his MTech dissertation at Space Physics Laboratory, (VSSC, Trivandrum), he was entrusted to associate with the ISRO-GBP land campaign, which was a major campaign conducted at the Indo-Gangetic Plain. He joined NERCI, after gaining experience in working in several projects at Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS, Trivandrum) and National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL, Bangalore). At NERCI, he was involved in the European commission funded INDO-MARECLIM project. His collaborative work with NERSC (Norway) and CMCC (Italy), highlighted the important role of recent warming of the Indian Ocean in weakening the Indian summer monsoon circulation. The major findings emanated from these research are published in reputed international journals. Currently he is working as the Principal Investigator of Dept. of Science and Technology (DST, Govt. of India) funded project that focuses on the recent changes in the Indian summer monsoon circulation due to the combined effect of Indian Ocean warming and atmospheric aerosols.

Research Interests

Aerosol-Cloud interactions, Indian summer monsoon, Indian Ocean warming.

Publications:

B. Abish, Annalisa Cherchi, Satyaban B. Ratna, 2017. ENSO and the recent warming of the Indian Ocean. International Journal of Climatology. Doi: 10.1002/joc.5170.

Satyaban B. Ratna, Annalisa Cherchi, P. V. Joseph, Swadhin Behera, B.Abish, Simona Masina, 2016. Moisture variability over the Indo-Pacific region and its influence on the Indian summer monsoon rainfall. Climate Dynamics. 46, 949-965. Doi: 10.1007/s00382-015-2624-z.

B.Abish, P.V. Joseph and Ola .M. Johannessen, 2015. Climate Change in Subtropical Jetstream during 1950 – 2009, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, 32,140-148. (Invited paper in 30th anniversary special issue). Doi: 10.1007/s00376-014-4156-6.

B. Abish, 2014. Long-term memory of atmospheric aerosols over India. http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/additional/newsletters/Poster_Long-term%20memory-AbishB.pdf

B. Abish, P.V. Joseph and Ola .M. Johannessen, 2013. Weakening Trend of the Tropical Easterly Jetstream of the Boreal Summer Monsoon season 1950 - 2009, Journal of Climate http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00440.1

B. Abish and K. Mohanakumar, 2013. Absorbing Aerosol Variability over the Indian Subcontinent and its Increasing Dependence on ENSO, Global and Planetary Change, 106, 13-19, doi: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.02.007

B. Abish and K. Mohanakumar, 2013. A Stochastic Model for Predicting Aerosol Optical Depth over the North Indian Region, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 34:4, 1449-1458, doi:10.1080/01431161.2012.723149 .

B. Abish and K. Mohanakumar, 2013. Evidence of Aerosol Induced Alteration of Cloud Parameters and its Impact on the Climate System over the Indian Subcontinent, Climate Change and Environment, 76-84, Scientific Publishers. ISBN: 9788172338336

B. Abish and K. Mohanakumar, 2013. Transport and Distribution of Atmospheric Aerosols over India. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany. ISBN: 978-3659398049

B. Abish and K. Mohanakumar, 2012. Biennial Variability in Aerosol Optical Depth Associated with QBO Modulated Tropical Tropopause, Atmospheric Science Letters, 13, 61-66, 10.1002/asl.364

B. Abish and K. Mohanakumar, 2011. Role of Fine Mode Aerosol Particles in Modulating Regional Cloud Properties over Industrial Locations in North India, Annales Geophysicae, 29, 1605–1612

B. Abish K. Krishnamoorthy and S. Suresh Babu, 2007. Aerosol Black Carbon at a Tropical Coastal Location: Response to Mesoscale and Synoptic Scale Processes, Journal of Marine Science and Atmospheric research, Vol.3,118-126.

Vijayakumar S. Nair, K. Krishna Moorthy, Denny P. Alappattu, P.K. Kunhikrishnan,Susan George, Prabha R. Nair, S. Suresh Babu, B. Abish, S. K. Satheesh, Sachchida Nand Tripathi, K. Niranjan, B. L. Madhavan, V. Srikant, C. B. S. Dutt, K. V. S. Badarinath, and R. Ramakrishna Reddy, 2007. Wintertime aerosol characteristics over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP): Impacts of local boundary layer processes and long-range transport, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, D13205

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Poornima Rajan M.tech in Remote sensing and wireless sensor networks from Amrita University, Coimbatore. She joined NERCI as Junior Research Fellow under DST funded project entitled "Atmospheric carbon sequestration potential of trees in Kochi City under the changing environmental scenario "(2016 - 2019) on 3rd April 2016. The idea of the project is to estimate the sequestration potential of the city with the existing vegetation pattern, Projecting the carbon balance for business as usual scenario and potential scenario and suggest measures to be taken for a sustainable city. Under the present scenario it will be an important step to address environmental issues related to the developmental activities including metro rail work. Read More...

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Poornima Rajan M.tech in Remote sensing and wireless sensor networks from Amrita University, Coimbatore. She joined NERCI as Junior Research Fellow under DST funded project entitled "Atmospheric carbon sequestration potential of trees in Kochi City under the changing environmental scenario "(2016 - 2019) on 3rd April 2016. The idea of the project is to estimate the sequestration potential of the city with the existing vegetation pattern, Projecting the carbon balance for business as usual scenario and potential scenario and suggest measures to be taken for a sustainable city. Under the present scenario it will be an important step to address environmental issues related to the developmental activities including metro rail work. Also worked as Junior research fellow in a project entitled as " Estimating carbon sequestration potential of mangroves in Kunhimangalam area using remote sensing and Geographic Information System supported by field observations" (2016) Funded by APOLLO Foundation under CSR initiative. The work is all about mangrove monitoring and management in the study area and to serve as baseline data for future studies, a map depicting the mangrove vegetation cover pattern over the area is to be prepared. Mangrove species of maximum carbon sequestration potential were identified. Also, areas where most destruction have occurred and tolerant species fit for re-plantation is to be identified.

Working Area: Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

Recent Publications:

Arathy Reghukumar, Divya Haridas, Poornima Rajan, Soman K.P. “Active contour based document image segmentation and restoration using split-bregman and edge enhancement diffusion” in international journal for computer application [ijca] volume 54/number 13 (isbn: 973-93-80870-57-4).

Aswathy Menon, Poornima Rajan, Deepthi.T.V.N, Roshni Das, Sachin Kumar S, K.P.Soman. “Enhancing bregmanised nltv image denoising using savitzky golay filter and svd” in international journal of scientific engineering and research [ijsert], volume 4, issue 1, and january -2013 (issn: 2229-5518).

Poornima Rajan, K.P.Soman, Shanmugha Sundaram. “Weather pattern monitoring using sdr” in 1st international conference on systems, signal processing and electronics engineering [icssee 2013].

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Arun K Post graduate in Meteorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology. Joined NERCI in June 2016, as junior research fellow in DST-SERB project titled as “Impact of atmospheric aerosols on the large-scale circulation over the Indian Summer monsoon region”.

Working Area: Aerosol and Indian Monsoon.

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Arun K Post graduate in Meteorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology. Joined NERCI in June 2016, as junior research fellow in DST-SERB project titled as “Impact of atmospheric aerosols on the large-scale circulation over the Indian Summer monsoon region”.

Working Area: Aerosol and Indian Monsoon.

Research Interest: Aerosols, Cloud physics, Thunderstorms, Climate Modelling.

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Shinu Sheela Wilson Post graduate in Meteorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Atmospheric Sciences on the topic “Interannual Variability of Monsoon over India” under NANSEN Ph.D Programme. She has joined NERCI in November 2012.

Working Area: Variability of Monsoon.

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Shinu Sheela Wilson Post graduate in Meteorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Atmospheric Sciences on the topic “Interannual Variability of Monsoon over India” under NANSEN Ph.D Programme. She has joined NERCI in November 2012.

Working Area: Variability of Monsoon.

Research Interest: Monsoon, Boundary Layer Meteorology, Air Sea interaction

Recent Publications:

Shinu Sheela Wilson and Venu G Nair.,”Variation of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Parameters During a Partial Annular Solar Eclipse over Kochi”. Proceedings of 25th Kerala Science Congress, 29th January - 1st February, 2013, Thiruvanathapuram.

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