Climate Change Activity 2(a)
Impact assessment of climate change including climate change, process and earth system modelling

--- TERI-NFA Working Paper(s)

--- Policy Briefs

--- Other publications under NFA

Key Outputs

The climate modeling and analysis group at TERI in collaboration with the national and international institutes strives to understand the climate system through observations and modeling. The key collaborator on climate research is Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR) in Bergen, Norway. The collaboration with BCCR is towards establishing capacity to understand the Earth System Models (ESMs) and climate change projections using these ESMs, for understanding the interactions between the various components in climate system and also for regional scale impact studies.

Regional climate modeling under tropical channel mode

Regional climate simulations using WRF under tropical channel mode (© TERI-BCCR, 2011)

Data from high-resolution regional climate models are needed for emerging impact studies. In this regard, representation of the present climate by regional climate models is essential in order to carry forward the future projections. The predictability in the tropics is very difficult when compared to the extra-tropics, where one of the main challenges lies in the selection of microphysical and cumulus parameterization schemes, which can represent the mean monsoon features well over this region. Under the current ongoing work at TERI, the regional model simulations using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model in a tropical channel domain mode. The tropical channel consists of a domain that covers the entire tropical belt with free waves in east-west direction and having north-south boundaries at 45oS and 45oN. This process allows the interaction from the extra-tropics through the north-and-south boundaries. In addition to that, it allows the generated east-west waves to propagate around the globe more naturally - as in the real world and in global models. Figure 1 illustrates the domain size being used in the research work at TERI, and the simulation of rainfall for the monsoon period in year 2002. The importance of tropical channel simulations using high resolution (50kmx50km and 36kmx36km) grids allows us to analyze both the mean climate variability over the region at different locations and also could be used for regional impact studies when considered for future periods.

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Events

TERI-BCCR Climate Research School - III

Date: 25-29 November 2013
Venue: TERI University, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

The TERI-BCCR Climate Research School - III on Statistical Downscaling was organized at the TERI University from 25-29 November 2013. The event was supported by The Royal Norwegian Embassy and included lectures on atmospheric and ocean sciences, scientific writing techniques, and hands-on tutorial sessions on various empirical statistical downscaling techniques by using the software R.

Dr Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, delivered the inaugural speech while Mr Havard Hugas, Counsellor, Climate Change and Energy, Norwegian Embassy, gave the Special Talk highlighting and encouraging the research collaboration between India and Norway and lauding TERI for organizing such comprehensive capacity-building residential workshops. Dr Pachauri in his welcome address, highlighted the importance of downscaling information for providing climate services to society in the developing world. Prof. Eystein Jansen, Director, BCCR, in his video message, emphasized the importance of reducing uncertainty and building new research in climate services, under collaboration between India and Norway. AVM K S Babu, Chief Air Staff Met., Indian Air Force, in his address mentioned the last mile connectivity provided by the Air Force to users and for research. He emphasized on application-based research for societal benefits.

For more details kindly visit: TERI-BCCR Climate Research School - III

Institute Seminar on 'Numerical Climate Modeling in TERI's High Performance Computing'

Date: 26 October 2012
Venue: TERI, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

An Institute Seminar on ‘Numerical Climate Modeling in TERI’s High Performance Computing’ by Dr Vidyunmala Veldore was held on 26 October 2012.

The seminar provided the journey of climate modeling and climate observations at TERI and way forward for activities in this arena of research. The Norwegian Framework Agreement (NFA) has provided a unique opportunity for TERI’s climate modeling group to work on hierarchical coupled climate models which can resolve the climate variability at different spatial and temporal scales. The climate models, both global and regional, are essentially the primary tools that aid in the interpretation of processes that govern the climate system.

The ensuing discussions dwelt on the fact that climate model outputs can be tailored to various sectors that TERI works on such as water, agriculture, health, air pollution, snow-melt and run-off, energy (solar, renewable and wind), biodiversity and forestry, disaster risk reduction, cities and climate change, coastal regions vulnerabilities (sea level rise, storm surges) etc.

TERI-BCCR Climate Research School - II

Date: 1-5 October 2012
Venue: TERI University, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR), Norway jointly organized the second TERI-BCCR Climate Research School - II 'Beyond Regional Climate Modelling - Best Practices and New Insights' at TERI University from 1 - 5 October 2012. The event was supported by The Royal Norwegian Embassy and consisted of hands-on tutorial sessions on WRF model, Bayesian statistics, ecosystem modeling, and REMO regional model data analysis.

Norwegian Ambassador Eivind S Homme and Dr Shailesh Nayak, Secretary Ministry of Earth Sciences delivered the Special address and Inaugural key note address respectively. Dr R K Pachauri, Director General, TERI in his opening address, highlighted the importance of capacity building initiatives in the field of climate modeling in the developing world. Prof Eystein Jansen, Director, BCCR, in his video message, also emphasized the importance of climate modeling and the need for such capacity building hands-on training workshops. He also cited the merits of the ongoing strong collaboration between TERI and BCCR and welcomed the recent collaboration with NCAR, USA. The faculty for the school included Dr Michel d S Mesquita, BCCR Norway; Dr Cindy Bruyere, NCAR USA; Dr Pankaj Kumar, MPI Germany; Prof. P V Joseph, CUSAT and NANSEN Centre Kerela; Dr P S Swathi, CMMACS Bangalore; Dr Vinu K V; IITM Pune, Dr Vidyunmala Veldore; and Saurabh Bhardwaj from TERI.

TERI-BCCR Climate Research School - I

Date: 3-7 October 2011
Venue: TERI University, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

TERI in collaboration with Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR), Norway, and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized a five-day residential climate research school at TERI University, New Delhi, from 3-7 October 2011. Dr Pachauri, in his address, highlighted the importance of capacity building initiatives in the field of climate modeling in the developing world. Prof Eystein Jansen, Director, BCCR, in his video message, and Mr Håvard Hugås, Counsellor, Climate Change and Energy, Royal Norwegian Embassy in his inaugural address, emphasized the importance of climate modeling and the need for such capacity building hands-on training workshops.

Over 20 participants from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Norway attended the training school and expressed their happiness in learning not only the climate models but also tools (linux, statistical, and graphical tools). This was the first among the three yearly research schools planned. The next research school will be based on the theme Earth System Modeling and is plans to invite a much larger participation, both in terms of students and professionals.

Inauguration of HPC setup at TERI

Date: 14 March 2011
Venue: TERI, New Delhi

“A successful development policy can be formulated only if the uncertainties in climate impact assessments can be minimized, or at least quantified. I am happy that TERI has acquired Wipro’s supercomputer to perform the new generation Earth’s climate system simulations.” -- Mr. Azeem Premji

“Climate modeling at TERI envisions addressing key environmental challenges from global to local levels, by providing plausible scientific knowledge on climate change issues with the help of next generation climate models. WIPRO’s supercomputer will help in fine-tuning the complexities attached in predicting the climate patterns so that they can be used for climate change projections and regional impact assessment studies” -- Dr. R.K. Pachauri

Special Event to DSDS 2011

Date: 1 February 2011
Venue: Amaltas hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

As part of the Indo-Norwegian project, a special side-event was organized during the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2011 (DSDS) to discuss the initiatives and the requirement of improved climate projections both at the global and local scales, for better impact assessments within the Indo-Norwegian project. Professor Eystein Jansen, Director of Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR) and Dr. Arabinda Mishra, Director of the Earth Science and Climate Change Division at TERI shared their views on the importance of this project for future collaborations between Norway and India, and the value addition and capacity building required in a developing country like India for better impact and vulnerability studies.

Agenda -- The agenda of the event was to discuss the progress of the project and enlisting expected key deliverables"

Others - 'Dissemination of project findings through other national / international platforms'