This award supports the US-India Cooperative Research: Studies of Mesoscale Weather Systems over the Indian Region Using Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) of Colorado State University (CSU). US PI William Cotton, Colorado State University will collaborate with Indian PI S.S. Singh, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM). Using RAMS for the Indian sub-continent, the researchers expect to identify-- predictability of mesoscale weather systems, entrainment in the boundary layer, and mechanisms controlling diurnal variations in precipitation during monsoon months.
Scope: Colorado State will host the Indian co-PI to acquaint that person with RAMS and the US PI will visit the IITM to present lectures on applications of RAMS. Colorado State is the developer of the RAMS computer model and has the resources to perform complex simulations of weather systems. The IITM scientists are very experienced with weather systems over the Indian sub-continent and have identified key unknowns in our understanding of those weather systems. This collaboration is likely to make a major contribution to our understanding of weather systems in that region and identify how predictions can be improved upon.
