Dr V Ramanathan

My research approach is to integrate satellite and in-site observations with models to understand how clouds, water vapor and aerosols influence climate. Along with my students, I have developed a Lagrangian approach to track cloud size and spatial structure, and estimate their influence on the water vapor distribution, radiative and latent heating. Recently, we conducted a major field experiment in the Indian Ocean with aircraft, ships and surface stations to collect data on the mircrophysics and radiative forcing of anthropogenic aerosols. During the next few years, my emphasis will be to integrate these observations with models and improve the treatments of clouds, water vapor and aerosols in climate models. We will be emphasizing the cirrus clouds.