CURRICULUM VITA
Name
KANIKICHARLA KRISHNA KUMAR
Address
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM)
Dr.Homi Bhabha Road, Pune 411 008, India
Phone: +91-20-589-3600 FAX: +91-20-589-3825
email: krishna@tropmet.res.in
Date of Birth
June 6th 1958
Education
Ph.D. (Atmospheric Physics), University of Pune, India
Thesis title: Seasonal Forecasting of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall:
Diagnostics and Synthesis of Regional and Global Signals
M.Sc. (Meteorology), Andhra University, India
Present Position
Scientist C, IITM, Pune (working at IITM since 1982)
Areas of interest
Short/long term Climate Variability and Prediction; Monsoon ENSO linkages, Diagnostics of global atmosphere and coupled
models outputs; Climate Applications in agriculture, water
resources and human health, Climate Change and Impacts
Awards
Received 1) Dr. B.N. Desai Medal 2) Dr. M.N. Phillip Prize
and 3) Indian Meteorological Society Award for securing
First Rank in M.Sc. Meteorology.
Received the Tenth South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Regional Research Award for
Encouragement to Young scientists for the year 1992
Graduate Student received START Young Scientist Award for
the year 2002 for our paper ENSO-Monsoon relationships in
a greenhouse warming scenario, R.G. Ashrit, K. Rupa
Kumar and K. Krishna Kumar, 2001, Geophys. Res. Lett.,
28 (9), pp. 1727-1730.
Membership in
Professional Societies
Life member of Indian Meteorological Society
Participation in
International
Programs/Meetings/
Workshops
1.Participated in the workshop and conference on El Nino and
Tropical Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions, held during 314th June, 2002 at ICTP, Italy.
2.Participated as one of the PIs in the inagural planning meeting
of APN project held at Bangkok during 20-23 May, 2002.
3.Visited Meteorological Research Institute of Japan
Meteorological Agency, Tsukuba, Japan, during MarchJune, 2001 under STA Fellowship of Japan.
4.Invited as a guest lecturer in the International Training
Institute on Climate and Society, organized at East West
Center, Honolulu, Hawaii during 14-23 February, 2001
5.participated in CLIMAG workshop on applied agricultural
systems analysis organized at QDPI, Toowoomba,
Queensland, Australia during 6-17 November as part of the
APN/START project.
6.Participated and presented a paper in the International Forum
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on Climate Prediction, Agriculture and Development held
during 26-28 April, 2000 at IRI, Palisades, New York, USA.
7.Worked as a visiting scientist with Prof. Mojib Latif at MaxPlanck Institute for Meteorologie, Hamburg, Germany
during 4May-2July 2000 and conducted several model
sensitivity studies on Indian Summer Monsoon with
different SST patterns in the Indian and the Pacific Oceans.
8.Worked on a two year Visiting Post-Doctoral Research
Scientist assignment at International Research Institute
(IRI), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia
University, Palisades, New York, USA, during July 1997 June 1999.
9.Participated and presented a paper at the EGS meeting in
April, 1999 at Hague, Netherlands.
10.Visited and given a seminar at MPI, Hamburg, Germany in
April, 1999.
11.Participated and given an invited talk on Changes in extreme
precipitation over India, in the WMO/CLIVAR
international workshop on Indices and Indicators for
Climate Extremes, held during 3-6 June, 1997 at NCDC,
Asheville, North Carolina, USA.
12.Participated and given an invited talk on Monsoon
Prediction in the Workshop on El Nino, SO and Monsoon,
held at ICTP, Trieste, Italy during 15-26 July, 1996.
13.Participated in the Second International Training course on
Practical and Theoretical Aspects of Short-term Climate
Prediction, during 13 March - 16 December 1994,
organized by IRI at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
NY, USA.
14.Participated in the International Conference on Regional
Environment and Climate Changes in East Asia, held during
Nov. 30 - Dec., 3 1993, at Taipei, Taiwan. (Presented two
papers)
Participation in
Collaborative Projects
Principal Investigator (PI) in APN/START funded project,
Applying climate information to enhance the resilience of
farming systems exposed to climate risk in south and
southeast Asia. This multi-national project involves PIs
from IRI (USA), DPI (Australia), IISc, TNAU, IITM
(India), Indonesia and Pakistan.
Co-PI in UK funded project, Development of Climate Change
Scenarios for India, being carried out at IITM, Pune
Collaborator/Team Member in UK Govt funded project,
Impacts of Climate Change on Water Resources in India
being done at IITM, Pune, India
Collaborator in UK Govt. funded project, Impacts of Climate
Change on Human Health in India being done at National
Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India
Co-PI in Department of Science and Technology, Govt of
India funded project, National Information Facility for
Climate Research being done at IITM, Pune, India
Joint-Collaborator in INDO-FRENCH Collaborative Project,
Sensitivity of the Indian Summer Monsoon to Anthropogenic
Climate Change (institutions involved: IITM, Pune, India;
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CNRM, & ENM , Meteo-France, Toulouse, France)
 PI in NATCOM project on Climate Change Projection for
India and Assessment of the Associated Agricultural and
Human Health Impacts.
Supervision of Ph.D. and
M.Tech/Training Students
Supervised
an M.Tech (Atmospheric Sciences) student of
Andhra University, Visakhapatnam in the academic year
2001-2002, for the dissertations work on 'Climate Change
Scenarios of Rainfall and Temperature over India using
Coupled Model Simulations with IS92A Greenhouse Gas
Forcing'.
Supervised
a foreign student from Tobago and Trinidad in
2002 to undertake a project on 'Climate: Its variability and
change over Trinidad and Tobago' as part of the Advance
Met. Course of IMD, Pune.
Currently
two people are working for their Ph.D. under my
supervision. These students are primarily working in the
areas of (1) Evaluating the simulation of low-frequency
(Madden-Julian and other) oscillations in the monsoon
rainfall over the Indian region in different atmospheric and
coupled ocean-atmospheric models and likely future changes
in different climate change scenarios and (2) Impacts of
interannual monsoon variability and Climate Change on the
water resources of major river basins in India, respectively.
Professional Experience:
I have been working at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India since 1982
in various capacities engaged in full time research in Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences.
Needless to say, like most climate scientists in India, my focus of research has been to
understand the nature of monsoon variability and see how best one can predict the monsoon
rainfall on different spatial and temporal scales. In this pursuit, I have gained very useful
experience working with a large volume of observed meteorological data on various important
climatic factors for the Indian region in various analyses carried out during the initial stages of
my work which has given me a great insight into various aspects unique to monsoon climate
over this region. However, during the last 6 or 8 years, I have been carrying out diagnostic
studies involving simulation data from different atmospheric and coupled ocean-atmosphere
general circulation models (GCMs) and also conducted various sensitivity experiments using
GCMs to understand monsoon rainfall variability and the impact of sea surface patterns in the
Indian and the Pacific Oceans. During the course of my long research career in one of the
premier research centers on Atmospheric research in India, I have organized several national
and international conferences/symposia, besides conducting training programs on climate issues
to agricultural scientists engaged in disseminating climate information. Though the nature of
my job is a full-time researcher, I am a recognized research supervisor for M.Tech and Ph.D.
graduates in Atmospheric Science of Pune University and Andhra University in India. I am
working as one of the principal investigators/collaborators in various national/bilateral/
multinational research projects related to climate applications, development of climate change
scenarios using regional climate models and impact studies. The success of any climate
application study would primarily depend on the accuracy and reliability of monsoon forecasts
on different spatio-temporal scales. In this connection, my ongoing collaborations with
scientists working at some of the leading climate centers like the IRI (USA), Hadley Center
(UK), MPI (Germany), and MRI (Japan) have been proving to be very productive in improving
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our understanding of monsoon variability and the prediction. I strongly believe the possibilities
of collaboration with the scientists at CDC, NCAR, UC-Boulder, CIRES would advance our
understanding of the unusual behavior of monsoon and its global teleconnections in the recent
decades by way of conducting useful diagnostic studies and GCM experiments. Besides, the
Asian monsoon is known to influence the weather and climate else where in the world and
therefore, the successful and realistic simulation of monsoon in GCMs is very necessary for
improving the global climate forecasts in general.
Peer reviewed several research papers submitted to some of the prestigious journals like
Science, Journal of Climate, Geophysical Research Letters and many other Indian journals.
International Centers Visited
1.IRI, Columbia University, New York, University of Colorado, Boulder and Hadley Center for
Climate Prediction, UK during 18 November - 7 December, 2002 (Hosts: Drs. James Hansen
(IRI), Balaji Rajagopalan (CU) and Geoff Jenkins(UK Metoffice))
Recent visits to the above mentioned centers in connections with my ongoing bilateral and multinational collaborative research projects have proved to be very fruitful and useful in continuing the
proposed research tasks under these programs and more so in planning future collaborative works in
the areas of monsoon variability and prediction/impacts of global climate change on various facets of
monsoon variability and global teleconnections. This visit has also provided me an opportunity to
meet many scientists working with Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CIRES and CDC-NOAA having
common research interests and plan some collaborative research themes/areas with a possibility to
pursue them under the CIRES visiting fellows program in the coming year.
2.Meteorological Research Institute (MRI), Tsukuba, Japan, 3 months (March-June, 2001;
Host: Dr. M. Sugi)
Visited MRI, Japan on a STA fellowship program. During this visit a six member ensemble
Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM) runs made with observed global sea surface
temperatures (SSTs) during 1949-1997 have been analyzed to examine the model's ability to simulate
various global climatic features such as the Indian summer monsoon, North Atlantic Oscillation
(NAO) etc. and their interannual variability. These runs were made at the Meteorological Research
Institute (MRI) of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Tsukuba, Japan. Apart from the general
climatological features, emphasis was given to examine in detail the Indian monsoon rainfall
simulation in the model and its tele-connections with El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The
analyses show several encouraging positive aspects of the model simulations while the inherent
deficiencies brought out suggest the need for further improvements in the model physics and
parameterizations. These highly computationally expensive 6 member ensemble runs were also
utilized to study the predictability (internal vs SST forced variability) aspects of various global
meteorological variables such as the precipitation, surface temperature, sea level pressure etc. A
research paper based on the above work is being prepared.
3.Max-Planck Institute for Meteorologie (MPI), Hamburg, Germany, 2 months (May-June,
2000; Host: Dr. M. Latif)
Though short, this 2-month visit to MPI has given me an opportunity to design and perform a set of
atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) experiments by forcing ECHAM3 (T21) model with
different sea surface temperature (SST) patterns in the Indian and the Pacific Oceans to understand
various issues concerning the secular changes in monsoon-ENSO relationships. The possible impact
of recent continental warming on the connection between the Indian monsoon activity and the SSTs in
the Indo-Pacific region has also been assessed with additional sensitivity experiments by doubling the
CO2 concentration with fixed SST patterns in the ocean. These sensitivity experiments suggest
significant differences in the response of the Indian monsoon to the differences in the SST patterns
associated with different El Nino events. Building on these preliminary efforts, more extensive
additional experiments could be designed and performed in close collaboration with scientists at
CDC and/or NCAR during the proposed fellowship tenure to understand the possible impact of recent
tropical basin-wide sea surface temperature warming on the well-known monsoon and global
teleconnections.
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4.International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI), LDEO, Palisades, NY, USA, 2
years (July 97 - June 99; Collaborated with Prof. Mark Cane)
This two year visiting post-doctoral research scientist assignment at IRI has provided me ample
opportunities to address various issues concerning monsoon variability and predictability in general
and the inter-decadal variations in the strength of monsoon-ENSO linkages in particular. Also, this
visit has helped me to steer my research efforts towards possible applications in agriculture, water
resources, human health etc. having direct societal benefits. My involvement, of late, in various
national and multi-national projects with the primary focus on climate applications in various fields
bears testimony to this new pursuit.
5.International Research Institute for Climate Prediction, Palisades, NY, USA, 9 months
(March-December, 1994; Project done with Dr. S.E. Zebiak)
This carefully designed and well organized 9-month long international training program was very
useful in many ways. Excellent course program and numerous invited guest lectures by leading
personalities in the fields of seasonal prediction and ENSO forecasting besides climate
applications formed a formidable foundation and basis for my research during the last 8 years
after that. Working together with colleagues with varied backgrounds from different parts of the
globe gave an unique experience to learn from each others strengths and establish global links
necessary for further collaborative programs. Overall, the program was a very fruitful and
gratifying academic experience.List of Publications of Dr. K. Krishna Kumar
1.Response of the Indian Monsoon and ENSO-Monsoon Teleconnection to Enhanced
Greenhouse Effect in Transient Simulations of the CNRM Coupled Model, R.G. Ashrit, H.
Douville, K. Rupa Kumar, F. Chauvin, K. Krishna Kumar, and J.-F. Royer, J. Met. Soc.
Japan (Accepted for Publication).
2.On Forecasting the Indian Summer Monsoon : the Intriguing Season of 2002, Current
Science, Sulochana Gadgil, J Srinivasan, Ravi S Nanjundiah, K Krishna Kumar, A A
Munot, Rupa Kumar Kolli, 2002, Current Science, 83, 4, 394-403.
3.Climate Change in India : Observations and Model Projections, NATCOM Book on Climate
Change, K. Rupa Kumar, K. Krishna Kumar, R.G. Ashrit, S.K. Patwardhan and G.B. Pant,
In Climate Change and India - Issues, concerns and opportunities. Eds. P.R. Shukla, Subodh
Sharma and P.V. Raman, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., New Delhi, 2002, pp 2475.
4.Climate Change and Human Health, S. Bhattacharya, C. Sharma, K. Krishna Kumar, R.S.
Parmar and A.P. Mitra, 2002, Science and Culture, 68, 9-12, pp 264-277.
5.Global Change and Biogeochemical Cycles: the South Asia Region, 2002 in Global-Regional
Linkages in the Earth System, Eds. P. Tyson et al., Global Change-the IGBP Series,
Springer-Verlag Berlin Geidelberg, Germany, 75-104 (contributory author).
6.Global Warming and Climate Change: An Indian Perspective on Observations and Model
Projections, K. Krishna Kumar, K. Rupa Kumar and D.R. Kothawale, Proceedings of
the symposium, "Statistical Science and Environmental Policy: Possible Interactions", held
at ISI, Calcutta during 10-12 January, 2000, Oxford University Press (in Press).
7.Sensitivity of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall to Indo-Pacific SST Patterns: Some AGCM
Experiments, K. Krishna Kumar, M. Latif and D. Dommenget (under preparation).
8.ENSO-Monsoon relationships in a greenhouse warming scenario, R.G. Ashrit, K. Rupa
Kumar and K. Krishna Kumar, 2001, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28 (9), pp. 1727-1730.
9.On the weakening relationship between the Indian Monsoon and ENSO, K. Krishna Kumar,
B. Rajagopalan and M. A. Cane, Science, 284, 2156-2159, 1999.
10.Epochal Changes in Indian Monsoon-ENSO precursors, K. Krishna Kumar, R.Kleeman,
M.A. Cane and B. Rajagopalan, Geophys. Res. Let., 26, 1, 75-78, 1999.
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11.Pre-monsoon maximum/minimum temperatures over India in relation to the summer
monsoon rainfall, K. Krishna Kumar, K.Rupa Kumar G.B. Pant, Int. Jr. of Climatology,17,
1115-1127, 1997.
12.Seasonal forecasting of Indian summer monsoon rainfall : Role of ENSO and development
of empirical models. K.Krishna Kumar, First WMO International workshop on Monsoon
studies to be held in Denpasar, Indonesia, 24-28 Feb., 1997.
13.Monsoon-ENSO relationships as revealed by the performance of a coupled ocean
atmosphere model, K. Krishna Kumar, First WMO International workshop on Monsoon
studies to be held in Denpasar, Indonesia, 24-28 Feb., 1997.
14.Climate change and variability over South Asia, G.B. Pant, K. Rupa Kumar and K. Krishna
Kumar, 1996 : In : Climate variability and Agriculture, Eds : Y. P. Abrol, S. Gadgil and
G.B. Pant, Narosa Publishing House, New Delhi, London, 51-68.
15.Seasonal forecasting of Indian summer monsoon rainfall : A review -- K. Krishna Kumar,
M.K. Soman and K.Rupa Kumar, Weather, 1995, 50, 12, 449-467.
16.Forecasting of Indian summer monsoon rainfall on smaller regional scales using Canonical
Correlation Analysis technique -- K. Krishna Kumar, Project Report Submitted to
International Research Institute for Climate Prediction, New York, Dec. 1994, 76 pp.
17.Diurnal asymmetry of surface temperature trends over India -- K. Rupa Kumar, K. Krishna
Kumar and G.B. Pant, Geophy. Res. Letters, 1994, 21, 8, 677-680
18.Long-term variation in precipitation and temperature over South Asia from instrumental
records -- K. Krishna Kumar, K. Rupa Kumar and G.B. Pant, Proc. of 'International
Conference on Regional Environment and Climate Changes in East Asia', Nov. 30 - Dec.3,
1993, Taiwan, 359-363.
19.Day-time and night-time temperature trends over India during 1901-1987 -- K. Rupa Kumar,
K. Krishna Kumar G.B. Pant, Proc. of International Conference on Regional Environment
and Climate Changes in East Asia', Nov. 30 - Dec.3, 1993, Taiwan, 376-381.
20.The onset of southwest monsoon - a composite study -- M.K. Soman and K. Krishna
Kumar 'Advances in Tropical Meteorology, Monsoon Variability, Satellite Applications and
Modeling' Tata Mc. Graw-Hill Pub. Co. Ltd., New Delhi, 1993, 29-38.
21.Space-time evolution of Meteorological features associated with the onset of Indian summer
monsoon -- M.K. Soman and K. Krishna Kumar, Mon. Wea. Rev., 121, 1993, 1177-1194
22.Quantitative precipitation forecasting over Narmada catchment -- K. Krishna Kumar and
M.K. Soman Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences (Earth & Planetary Sciences)
102, 1993, 313-328.
23.Climatic shifts over Mahanadi river basin -- P.G. Rao and K. Krishna Kumar, Current
Science 63, 4, 1992, p 192-195
24.Premonsoon ridge location over India and its relation to monsoon rainfall -- K. Krishna
Kumar, K. Rupa Kumar and G.B. Pant, Journal of Climate, 5, 9, 1992, p 980-986
25.The 500 hPa ridge and Indian summer monsoon rainfall : A detailed diagnostic study
K.Krishna Kumar, K.Rupa Kumar and G.B.Pant, IITM Research Report No. RR-048 Nov.
1991, p. 27.
26.A rainfall index for hydrological floods/ droughts over India Nityanand Singh K.Krishna
Kumar and R.H.Kripalani, Mausam, Vol. 41, No. 3, 1990, pp. 469-474.
27.The EV1 distribution for modelling extreme rain events at Bombay, Nityanand Singh,
K.Krishna Kumar and O. Abraham Mausam, Vol. 41, No.3, July 1990, pp. 427-432.
28.Some aspects of daily rainfall distribution over India during the Southwest Monsoon Season
M.K.Soman and K.Krishna Kumar, International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 10, 1990,
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pp. 299-311.
29.Long term changes in the rainfall processes over Kerala, India Nityanand Singh, K.Krishna
Kumar and M.K. Soman, Hydrological Journal of IAH, Vol. XII, No. 3, 1989, pp. 73-88.
30.Inter-annual Variability of the dates of onset of the Southwest monsoon over Kerala and the
variability of monsoon rainfall R.Ananthakrishnan M.K.Soman and K.Krishna Kumar,
Proc.of the Workshop 'Large-scale variability of Tropical Atmosphere and Oceans held at
I.I.Sc., Bangalore,during 10-13 Feb.,1987.
31.Some features of the periods contributing specified percentages of rainfall to annual total in
Kerala,India, Nityanand Singh, K.Krishna Kumar and M.K.Soman, Theoretical and
Applied Climatology Vol.39,1989, pp.160-170.
32.Hydroclimatic fluctuations of Upper Narmada catchment and its association with break
monsoon days over India, Nityanand Singh, M.K.Soman and K.Krishna Kumar,
Proceedings Ind.Acad.Sci.(Earth & Planetary Sciences),Vol.97, No.1,1988,pp.87-105.
33.Comparison of Penman and Thornthwaite methods of estimating Potential
Evapotranspiration for Indian conditions, K.Krishna Kumar, K.Rupa Kumar and
P.R.Rakhecha, Theoretical and Applied Climatology.
34.Decreasing trend in the rainfall of Kerala M.K.Soman K.Krishna Kumar and Nityanand
Singh, Current Science, Vol.57, No.1, January 5, 1988.
35.Probability distribution of summer monsoon and delineating rainfall zones in India
Nityanand Singh, K.Krishna Kumar and R.R. Mali Proc.of the Colloquium on
'Precipitation analysis and flood forecasting : held at Pune, 29-6-1984 - 2-7-1984
36.Use of Coefficient of variation in determining rainfall probabilities in a humid region
Nityanand Singh, M.K.Soman and K.Krishna Kumar, Mausam, July 1987 pp.261-264.
37.Study of the Variability of ten-day average evaporation values in India, K.V.Ramana Murthy
and K.Krishna Kumar Indian Journal of Power and River Valley Development Jan.1987,
pp.20-22.
38.Oscillations in potential Evapotranspiration over India, K.Krishna Kumar and
P.R.Rakhecha Indian Journal of Agricultural Meteorology,Vol.2, Nos. 1 & 2, Jan.&
July,1984,pp.51-53.
Presentation of APN/START Pilot Project outcomes at International Meetings:
Towards
Resiliant Farming Systems, by H. Meinke, M. Aslam, G. Gadgil, J. Hansen, K.
Krishna Kumar and R. Selvaraju, 2nd International Symposium - Modelling Cropping
Systems held during July 16-18, 2001, at Florence, Italy.
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS, CLIMATE AND THE HUMAN DIMENSION:'Hard DATA FOR
SOFT SYSTEMS', by H. Meinke, M. Aslam, G. Gadgil, J. Hansen, K. Krishna Kumar and R.
Selvaraju, The 2001 Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental
Change Research Community to held during October 6-8, 2001 at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Tailoring Cropping Systems to Seasonal Climate Forecasts in Semi-Arid South Asia, by J.
Hansen, H. Meinke, R. Selvaraj, M. Aslam, S. Gadgil and K. Krishna Kumar, 2001 Agronomy
Meeting, Charlotte, North Carolina, 21-25 Oct.
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