Many remember Professor Roddam Narasimha as the one who helped study the monsoons in India through his studies on fluid dynamics.
His work has enriched research on weather systems, the monsoons, and climate change — all of which have a tremendous impact on our agricultural economy and our future.
In addition to his studies on weather, his policy-making has changed the course of aerospace research in our country.
Narasimha had a long and distinguished career in which he served as the Chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Director of the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL).
The world remembers this Padma Vibhushan recipient (2013) for his famous monsoon experiment which started way back in 1979.
Pic source: Indian Institute of Science
From May to September that year, his team gathered data from across the country using sensor towers, balloons, sodars, and tethersondes.
Prof Roddam led researchers from over 20 institutes, including the India Meteorological Department, to collect various kinds of measurements.
The Air Force also sent in their observations and so did the crew from vessels such as the ORV Sagar Kanya. Satellite images from INSAT were also added to the dataset.
He was trying to analyse the first layer of the atmosphere sitting on top of the Earth’s surface, whether it be over sea or land.
This ‘boundary layer’ plays a crucial role in monsoons due to its constant exchange of heat, moisture, and energy with the surface leading to a lot of turbulence in this section of the atmosphere.
Decoding this turbulence is key to understanding tropical weather systems like monsoons and cyclones, and requires precise measurements and complicated computer models.
Pic source: Rudra Kumar/IISc
This is what Narasimha and his team of four — A Prabhu, B S Adiga, K Narahari Rao and Syed Ameenulla — were trying to achieve with the Monsoon Trough Boundary Layer Experiment (MONTBLEX).
Pic source: IISc
“I was curious about what the atmospheric boundary layer was like in India,” Narasimha had said about the motivation for his massive research undertaking. “It had not been studied at all – was it different in the tropics?”
Pic source: IISc
MONTBLEX lasted more than a decade and its many findings have shaped our understanding of our rains.
Professor Narasimha’s work on the monsoons did not end with MONTBLEX.He continued to study its various aspects such as the connection between solar activity and the monsoons. He even created a cumulus cloud in his lab to understand how it works.
In addition, he studied shock waves, turbulence, aeronautics, gas dynamics and more, over his career spanning 60 years, before he passed away in 2020.