2nd Aerosol Winter School MANTHAN-2024 Concluded at CUJ

Jammu, 02 March 2024: Hon’ble LG Jammu &Kashmir Sh. Manoj Sinha inaugurated the 2nd Aerosol Winter School MANTHAN (Minds on Air quality human health & climate Nexus) – 2024 in Central University of Jammu on 26th February 2024. The 5 days intensive programme was organized by CU Jammu in collaboration with Sindhu Central University, UT of Ladakh and Indian National Young Academy of Science (INYAS-INSA).

 In his inaugural speech,the Hon’ble L.G. stressed upon the participation of all the stakeholders for better air quality in the UT and he congratulated the Vice Chancellor Prof. Sanjeev Jain and the Aerosol Research Group at the Department of Environmental Sciences, CUJ for imparting technical knowledge, intensive training, awareness and an opportunity for capacity building, multi-institutional as well as cross-sectoral collaboration coordination by organizing 2nd Aerosol Winter School.

Inaugural function was graced by Shri. Dheeraj Gupta, Addl. Chief Secretary, UT of J&K, Prof. A. P. Dimri, Director Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Prof. Sachin S Gunthe from IIT Madras and member Academic Council Sindhu Central University and other dignitaries. Apart from students & scholars from different institutions in Jammu region, participants from around 10 different institutes and universities (viz. IIT Delhi, IITM, Pune, BHU, PRL Ahmedabad, Central University of Allahabad, Central University of Punjab, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir University, Pune University and Jammu University etc.) and scientists from Pollution Control Committees participated and completed this winter school successfully.

Atmospheric Aerosols are complex and have diverse (natural/anthropogenic, primary/secondary and mobile/stationary) sources and multifarious implications on human health, climate and overall ecosystem. Good understanding of the Himalayan climate dynamics is further important to understand the sources and implications of atmospheric aerosols. Accurate and correct measurements are essential for creating a good database of atmospheric aerosols and for that purpose, fundamental knowledge of aerosol terminologies (PM10, PM2.5 etc. ), steps of sample collection, chemical analysis and application of statistical methods is required.

In all, fourteen subject experts: Prof. A.P. Dimri (IIG, Mumbai), Prof. Sachin Gunthe (IIT Madras), Dr. Manish Joshi (BARC, Mumbai) Prof. Shubha Verma (IIT Kharagpur), Dr. Ashwini Kumar (NIO, Goa), Dr. Narendra Singh (ARIES, Nainital), Prof. Sagnik Dey (IIT Delhi), Dr. G. Pandithurai (IITM, Pune), Prof. Vinoj V. (IIT Bhubaneswar), Dr.Sumit Mishra (NPL, New Delhi), Prof. Kiranmayi (IIT Bhubaneswar), Prof. GufranBeig (NIAS, Bengaluru), Dr. Ankit Tandon (CU Jammu), and Dr. Shweta Yadav working in various domains of Atmospheric Sciences viz. field measurements, laboratory analysis, and statistical/climate modelling etc. delivered expert lectures on the fundamentals of atmospheric aerosols and their implications on Air Quality, Human Health and Climate. They also shared recent research findings developed by their respective groups and institutions. Expert lectures were followed by extensive discussions on contemporary topics viz. “Fundamentals of Characteristic Aerosol Properties; Measurement, techniques and Uncertainties”, “Basics of the Atmosphere, Air Pollution, Observations and Climate Change in the Himalayas”, “Source Apportionment and Emission Inventories studies”, “Air Pollution from a Meteorological Perspective”, “Measurement Techniques for Atmospheric Aerosols”, “Radiative Transfer Modelling and Global Climate Modelling”, “Health implicationsofAir pollution and Understanding of Epidemiological studies”, “Role of meteorology in determining Air Pollution”, “Effect of Tropical Intraseasonal Oscillations on Aerosol Distribution Over Indian Region”, “Aerosol science & engineering: Laboratory scale to societal applications” and the “Application of advanced AI based Drone Technologyto achieve clean air goals”.

Central University of Jammu has been awarded the Indo-Swiss Project with ETH-Zurich, Switzerland under which the high altitude measurements will be conducted in Patnitop. The valedictory session in Patnitop was followed by field excursion took place on 1st March, 2024.The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee Prof. Gufran Beig, a senior scientist from NIAS, Bengaluru chaired the valedictory session. Dr. Beig along with other experts ignited the young minds and motivated them to pursue their studies and research in the field of atmospheric aerosols and their multifaceted implications that has special pertinence in the era of ongoing climate change.The interactions during the excursion trip were very helpful as the team of experts explained the importance of terrain, vegetation type, geographical settings and meteorology in modulating aerosol sources and stressed upon fundamentals of aerosol-cloud interactions and high altitude measurements.Dr. Shweta Yadav, Convenor and Dr. Ankit Tandon, Co-Convenor thanked Honourable Vice Chancellor Prof. Sanjeev Jain for his visionary leadership and entire CUJ fraternity for making this 2nd Aerosol Winter School a great success in pursuit of excellence.

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