Research Activities in Atmospheric Sciences Group are oriented towards better understanding of complex processes (physical, chemical, and dynamical) those are governing in Earth’s atmosphere. The atmospheric research group was established in year 2002 with a humble beginning of aerosols optical depth’s observations. Following this, observations of BC, ozone, CO, NOy, CH₄, SO₂ , NMHCs, CO₂, N₂O and the boundary layer meteorology (tower based) are also initiated. ARIES has also setup a facility of wind profiling using stratosphere troposphere radar (ST Radar), Lidar and balloon-borne observations of ozone. ARIES has been part of different national and international filed campaigns, like RAWEX-GVAX, SusKat, ASM-UTLS (part of StratoClim). Apart from observations, ARIES is also engaged in the modelling and satellite data analysis work.

• Trace Gases
• Boundary Layer Meteorology
• Dynamics
• Aerosols

PhD course work - Atmospheric Sciences Division

Introduction to Atmospheric Sciences
Atmospheric composition and structure, Thermal structure of the Earth's Atmosphere, Composition of the atmosphere, Hydrostatic equation, Atmospheric Thermodynamics, solar and terrestrial radiation, Greenhouse effect and effective temperature of earth, Meteorological processes and different systems, Local winds, monsoons, fogs, clouds, precipitation, fronts, Cyclones and anticyclones, thunderstorms, Motion of air-masses, Sea breeze, Land breeze. Observational techniques of meteorological parameter: Instruments for meteorological observations, Balloon soundings (RS/RW, pilot balloon etc).

Meteorology and Dynamics
Introduction to atmospheric dynamics, Basic conservation laws, Applications of the basic equations, Circulations and vorticity, Synoptic scale motions, Quasi geostrophic analysis Atmospheric oscillations, Baroclinicity, barotropicity and related instability, Mesoscale circulations, The general circulations, Tropical dynamics, climatology of the tropics (ITCZ), Physics and dynamics of monsoon, Tropical cyclones, mesoscale systems of the tropics. Atmospheric boundary layer and mountain meteorology, Radar principle, Classical radar equation and return signal, distributed targets, Doppler velocity measurements, Signal processing and detection, Application of radars to study atmospheric phenomenon, Lidar and its applications.

Atmospheric Trace Gases  
Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry and its importance, Stratospheric ozone, Production and Loss processes of stratospheric ozone, Polar Stratospheric Clouds, Tropospheric Ozone, Oxidizing power of the troposphere, Role of different trace gases and their Budget, Production and loss processes of Tropospheric ozone, Role of meteorology (e.g. BL, sea-land breeze, mountain,winds) and dynamics in tropospheric Chemistry, Motion of air-masses (back-air trajectory), Chemical kinetic, Rate expression for gas phase reactions, Photolysis rate Lifetime, Surface-Balloon-Satellite based observational techniques, Tools for Modeling (e.g. Box model, and 3-D model), Beer Lambert's law,  Satellite orbits (Geostationary and Polar), different space-borne sensors and their application/data analysis.

Atmospheric Aerosol
Classification and properties of aerosols, Production and removal mechanisms, Concentrations and size distribution,   Radiative  and  health  effects,  Observational techniques  for   aerosols,  Absorption   and scattering of solar radiation, Rayleigh scattering and  Mie scattering  Bouguert-Lambert law,  Principles of  radiometry,  Optical  phenomena  in  atmosphere  Modeling  for  aerosols,  Estimations  of  radiative forcing, Lidar equation, types of Lidar, Applications of Lidar.