NEW DELHI: In a first of its kind venture, India and the US will jointly study interaction of the upper ocean with the atmosphere and how it impacts the monsoon in the country.
Oceanographic research vessels of the two countries will take observation and carry out experiments in the Bay of Bengal for the next three years to have a substantial database to arrive at a conclusion.
US research vessel Roger Revelle, along with a team of scientists, will arrive in Chennai on Friday, and Indian vessel Sagar Nidhi will also join the research. According to scientists, India, as of now, does not have substantial data on interaction between the upper ocean (evaporated water from ocean surface) and the atmosphere. New Delhi has earmarked `38 crore for the whole exercise.
“This is a first of its kind collaboration with the US on this scale because the kind of scientific observations and data we plan to collect is massive,” said secretary for Ministry of Earth Science (MoES) Shailesh Nayak, adding that US scientists were coming for this project at their own expense.
The research vessels from both the countries would be used alternatively, and scientists from both countries would be jointly working to understand the ocean science in the Bay of Bengal. India also plans to include PhD students and experts from institutions such as the University of Massachusetts, the US, and the IISC, Bangalore.