The Centres will independently cater to the need of world class research in atmospheric and climate sciences, bridge the gap between fundamental science and improved ocean models/forecast and pioneer interdisciplinary research in the area of subsurface mechanics.
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences
The atmosphere, the layer of gases surrounding the Earth's surface, has continuously been evolving since its onset. On the other hand, climate, which is the pattern of long-term variations in various atmospheric parameters affecting our lives, is strongly pretentious by the atmosphere's conditions. Thus, the continually evolving state of the atmosphere, in turn, affects the Earth's climate, which has been severely perturbed in recent years due to increased anthropogenic activities. The climate system and complexities are unique over Indian region and increasing pollution strongly affecting regional climate and ecosystem health in Anthropocene. Here, we try to answer the questions about the complex interactions and multiphase processes in Earth System Science using advanced laboratory techniques, field measurement campaigns, and numerical models.
Principal Investigator: Sachin S. Gunthe
Geophysical Flows
In this proposal, we seek to synergistically combine novel field measurements and fundamental geophysical fluid dynamics studies to advance our understanding of the northern Indian Ocean regions, and their impact on climate modeling and predictions. The state-of-the-art field measurements, which would include pioneering work on observing the atmosphere and the ocean surface using unmanned aerial systems, will focus on the largely unexplored coastal regions (up to around 300 km from the land) of the Indian Ocean. Motivated by sensitivity studies on large-scale climate models, the observational studies in turn will motivate specific process studies in the lab via experiments and fine-scale numerical simulations, whose results would then feed back into large-scale climate models. The proposed research bridges the gap between fundamental science and improved ocean models/forecast, leading up to the societal benefit of improved climate prediction under the Indian National Monsoon Mission.
Principal Investigator: Manikandan Mathur
Subsurface Mechanics and Geo-energy
One of the grand challenges for the policy makers of the 21st century is sustainably addressing the growing energy demand of a rapidly industrializing world. With this objective in mind, a Center of Excellence (CoE) in Subsurface Mechanics and Geo-Energy is proposed at IIT Madras. The CoE will focus on pioneering interdisciplinary research in the area of subsurface mechanics by conglomerating various researchers with relevant expertise in the area of subsurface characterization, experimentalists, computational and theoretical scientists, geochemists and field engineers. The overarching goal of the CoE is to develop technologies for (a) efficient extraction of natural gas from unconventional reservoirs, (b) mitigating the environmental impact of unconventional hydrocarbon extraction through CO2 storage, and (c) improving the efficiency of geothermal reservoirs through enhanced geothermal systems. The CoE will develop both experimental and computational methods to gain a fundamental understanding of the physical, and chemical interactions between pore-fluids, rock deformation, overburden pressure, and injected fluids.
Principal Investigator: Chandrasekhar S. Annavarapu