AS 202 3:0
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
Large-scale, slowly evolving flows on a rotating earth. Vorticity, potential vorticity (pv), consequences of pv
conservation. Poincare, Kelvin and Rossby waves. Rotating shallow water equations, effects of stratification
and the rotating-stratified Boussinesq equations. Quasi- geostrophic flow and pv,Rossby waves on the midlatitude beta plane. Basic concepts of tropicaldynamics.Waves, jets and undercurrents on the equatorial beta plane. Waves and large-scale flow in the atmosphere and ocean from observations.
Jai Suhas Sukhatme
Pre-requistes : None
References : Pedlosky, J., Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Springer Verlag, 1977,Gill, A.,Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics, Academic Press Inc., 1982.,Holton,J.R., An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology, Academic Press, 1992. Relevant Journal Articles
AS 203 3:0
Atmospheric Thermodynamics
Vertical structure and composition of the atmosphere, kinetic theory of gases,first and second principles of
thermodynamics, thermodynamics of dry air,concept of saturation vapour pressure, water vapour in the atmosphere,properties of moist air, isobaric and isothermal processes, atmospheric stability, parcel and area methods, nucleation, effect of aerosols, clouds and precipitation, forms of atmospheric convection.
Arindam Chakraborty
Pre-requistes : None
References : Iribarne, I.V., and Godson, W.I., Atmospheric Thermodynamics, 2nd Edn, D Reidel Publishing Company, 1971,Rogers, R.R., A Short Course in Cloud Physics,2nd Edition, Pergamon Press, 1979,Bohren, C.F., and Albhecht, B.A.,Atmospheric Thermodynamics, Oxford University Press, 1998,Tsonis, A.A., An Introduction to Atmospheric Thermodynamics, Cambridge University Press, 2002,Wallace,
AS 205 2:1
Ocean Dynamics
Introduction to physical oceanography, properties of sea water and their distribution, mixed layer, barrier layer, thermocline, stratification and stability, heat budget and air-sea interaction, ocean general circulation,
thermohaline circulation, basic concepts and equations of motion, scale analysis, geostrophic currents, winddriven ocean circulation, Ekman layer in the ocean, Sverdrup flow, vorticity in the ocean, waves in the ocean, surface gravity waves, Rossby and Kelvin waves
P N Vinayachandran
Pre-requistes : None
References : Talley et al., Descriptive Physical Oceanography,6th Edition, 2011,B. Cushman- Roising, Introduction to GFD,Introduction to Physical Oceanography,http: /eanworld.tamu.edu (online book)
AS 207 3:0
Introduction to Atmospheric Dynamics
Introduction to weather and climate. Momentum, continuity and thermodynamic energy equations.
Basic equations in isobaric coordinates. Balanced flow: inertial flow, cyclostrophic flow. Thermal
wind, calculation of vertical velocities, circulation and vorticity. Planetary boundary layer:
atmospheric turbulence, Boussinesq approximation. Introduction to quasi-geostrophic systems.
Atmospheric waves.
Jai Suhas Sukhatme
Pre-requistes : None
References : Holton,J.R.,An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology,4th Edn,Elsevier
AS 209 3:0
Mathematical Methods in Climate Science
Review of probability and statistics: probability distributions, sample statistics. Confidence intervals. Hypothesis testing; goodness of fit tests,time-series analysis: Fourier transforms, principal component analysis (PCA).
Venugopal Vuruputur
Pre-requistes : None
References : Papoulis, A., & U. Pillai, Probability, Random Variables andStochastic Processes, 4th edition, McGraw Hill, 2002.,Wilks, D., Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences, 2nd edition, Academic Press, 2006.,O. Brigham, Fast Fourier Transforms, Prentice Hall, First Edition, 1974.,Press, W. H., S. A.Teukolsky, W. T. Vetterling, and B. P. Flannery, Numerical Recipes in C/Fortran: The Art of Scientific
AS 210 3:0
Numerical methods in atmospheric modeling
Review Equations used in atmosphere and climate modelling and their scale
analysis; numerical discretization (horizontal, vertical, time-discretization) of governing equations (e.g., mass, momentum, energy conservation); solution of discretized equations; finite
difference and finite volume schemes; overview of Semi-Lagrangian techniques; various spectral techniques and Galerkin projection; numerical solutions of example problems; modelling of sub-grid scale
processes (e.g., cumulus parameterization); special topics (e.g., emerging techniques/architectures, analysis of data driven/hybrid approaches).
Ashwin K Seshadri
Pre-requistes : None
References : P H Lauritzen et al., Numerical Techniques for Global Atmospheric Models, Springer, 2011
AS 211 2:1
Observational Techniques
Principles of measurement and error analysis, fundamentals of field measurements, in situ measurement of
atmospheric temperature, humidity, pressure, wind, radiation, precipitation and aerosols. Tower based
techniques and automatic measurement systems. Upper air observations, radiosonde techniques.
Measurements in the ocean, CTD, ADCP and ARGO. Modern measurement techniques.
Bhat G S
Pre-requistes : None
References : Guide to Meteorological Measurements and Methods of Observation,,World Meteorological Organization Publication No. 8,,7th Edition, WMO, Geneva. radiative transfer, the role of radiation in climate.~Harrison R. G. Meteorological Measurements and Instrumentation Wiley, (2014)~DeFelice, T. P.,An Introduction to Meteorological Instrumentation and Measurement. Prentice Hall, 1998.
AS 215 3:0
Environmental Fluid Dynamics
An overview of the field of fluid mechanics and description of the physics governing fluid flow. Principles of
buoyancy-driven flow: Free-surface flows, gravity currents, stratified flows, gravity waves. Heat transfer and
fluid instability: Convection, turbulence, and mixing. The course has four major components:
(i) Waves in fluids:
interfacial waves and internal gravity waves.
(ii) Vertical flows: turbulent plumes, filling box, double-diffusive
convection.
(iii) Horizontal flows: shallow water approximation, single-layer hydraulics, gravity currents, twolayer flows, and
(iv) Turbulent mixing: mixing across very stable interfaces and turbulent convection. The
course consists of Lectures, tutorials, and simple laboratory experiments
Bishakhdatta Gayen
Pre-requistes : None
References : Fluid Mechanics 3rd Edition: Authors: Ira Cohen and Pijush Kundu: Academic Press, Published Date: 2004~Buoyancy Driven Flow: Authors: J. S. Turner: Cambridge University Press, Published Date: 1979~Waves in the Ocean and Atmosphere: Introduction to Wave Dynamics: Authours: J. Pedlosky, Spriger Verlag, Published Date: 2003
AS 216 3:0
Introduction to climate system
Equations of motion for the atmosphere and oceans, observed mean state of theatmosphere and oceans,
exchange of momentum, energy and water between the atmosphere and surface, angular momentum cycle, global water cycle, radiation,energetics, entropy in climate system, climate variability, The global carbon cycle,Climate System Feedbacks
Govindasamy Bala
Pre-requistes : None
References : J. Peixoto and A.H. Oort,Physics of Climate,,American Institute of Physics
AS 217 2:1
Modelling and Forecasting
Syllabus Overview of Numerical Methods, Hierarchy of Models – global, regional, coupled models, Skill Score Metrics, Downscaling. Forecasting the weather, Ensemble Forecasting Technique, Dynamical Seasonal Prediction, Decadal Prediction and Climate Projections, Air Quality Modelling, Prediction of South Asian Monsoon. Architecture of Ocean Forecasting System Components, Numerical Ocean Models, Data
Preparation, Forcing and IC, Data Assimilation, Forecast Evaluation. Introduction to PDE-constrained
optimization, Linearization and Gradient Computation, Lagrange Multipliers; Adjoint-state Method, Seismic
Wave Equation and Finite-difference Modeling, Full Waveform Inversion.
Arindam Chakraborty
Pre-requistes : Atmosphere Dynamics/Ocean Dynamics/GFD
References : Implementing Operational Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting Systems’ https://www.mercator-ocean.eu/wp-content/ uploads/2022/10/22-0 9-26-ETOOFS-BOOK-DOI-UPDATED-AB.pdf 2. Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling, Mark Z Jacobson, Cambridge University Press. 3. Numerical methods for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, A. Chandrasekar, Cambridge University Press.
AS 298 0:18
MTech Project
This is a project course for the Joint MTech programme in Earth and Climate Sciences
Faculty
Pre-requistes : None
References : Research Papers
AS 308 2:1
Ocean Modeling
Equations governing ocean dynamics and thermodynamics, approximations, initial and boundary conditions,
one dimensional ocean models: bulk shearinstability and turbulent closure models reduced gravity ocean
models, Primitive equation models of ocean circulation. Sub-grid scale process, mixed layerparameterization,
sigma coordinate models finite difference schemes, time differencing, convergence and stability, testing and
validation test Problems.
Vinayachandran P N
Pre-requistes : None
References : None
AS 313 3:0
Non-Linear Model in Climate Sciences
An introduction to nonlinear dynamics: linearization, bifurcation, chaos; Galerkin projection and model reduction; Derivation and analysis of low order models for the atmosphere, ocean, climate dynamics, and geophysics (e.g., Rayleigh-Bénard convection, vorticity, general circulation, ocean thermohaline circulation, planetary dynamos, energy balance and global warming, ice sheets, ENSO, carbon cycle, examples from paleoclimate); Special topics (data driven methods; dynamics on networks)
Ashwin K Seshadri
Pre-requistes : None
References : Primary references: A Provenzale and N Balmforth, Chaos and Structures in Geophysics and Astrophysics H Dijkstra, Nonlinear Climate Dynamics M Ghil and S Childress, Topics in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics: Atmospheric Dynamics, Dynamo Theory, and Climate Dynamics Course notes