Aparna A R

Aparna A R

Profile

I did my bachelors in Physics but my interest in Oceans and their various physical processes influenced my decision to pursue my masters in Physical Oceanography. I graduated from Cochin university of science and technology with a distinction in Oceanography. My research interests are in the Indian Ocean and its various physical and dynamical processes. My masters’ dissertation at the Indian centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) explored the possible causes of the intense positive Indian ocean dipole event in 2019 (which is one of the intense events in the past 25 years) by carrying out a mixed layer heat budget analysis. After submitting my thesis, I carried out further studies on my topic which led me to arrive at some interesting aspects of the Indian Ocean dipole events and the results have been published in Climate Dynamics Journal. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00382-021-06099-8).

 

Aparna A R

PhD title: Ph.D. title: Why do weather and climate models get the Indian Ocean wrong

The Indian Ocean is a key component of global climate, surrounded by monsoon systems on which billions of people depend, and warming faster than any other ocean basin. But many state of the art climate models fail to accurately capture the dynamical and thermodynamical processes that govern climatic variability around the Indian Ocean. In my Ph.D. Project I will be studying the UK Met office unified climate models to identify the key processes that govern the errors in them in order to identify the potential model improvements. As the first step of my project, I will be carrying out a mixed layer heat budget analysis, which controls variability in sea-surface interaction, and will compare this heat budget against observations to identify errors. This work will be then extended to evaluate model experiments where the Ocean and the atmosphere will be nudged towards observed values, to identify the role of different regions and components of the climate system in generating model errors and biases. Short sensitivity studies will also be carried out to identify optimal model setups and pathways for future development.

Publications

    Aparna, A.R., Girishkumar, M.S. Mixed layer heat budget in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean during the two consecutive positive Indian Ocean dipole events in 2018 and 2019. Clim Dyn 58, 3297–3315 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-06099-8

Awards and prizes

ASPIRE scholarship 2020-2021 for masters’ dissertation.

Other Information

Participated in the International Coastal cleanup day in 2019 organised by the Clean Seas Campaign.

ORCiD

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8401-3487