IITM-ESM

To achieve an energy balanced frame-work to address long-term changes in climate, the second version of the IITM Earth System Model (IITM ESM version 2) has been developed by incorporating various refinements. These include partial grid implementation for transfer of fluxes between various Earth System components to conserve the energy balance of the climate system, implementation of eddy TKE scheme, improved convection scheme in the atmospheric model. Time-varying aerosol forcing, land-use land-cover changes and other Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase-6 (CMIP6) forcings are also incorporated in IITM-ESMv2. Multicentury simulations corresponding to preindustrial and present-day conditions show major improvements in capturing key aspects of time-mean atmosphere and ocean large-scale circulation. Teleconnections of the South Asian monsoon with climate drivers such as the El-Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) are found to be more robust in IITM-ESMv2, thus leading to improved simulation of South Asian monsoon and its variability [Swapna et al. 2018]

IITM-ESMv2 participated in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase-6 (CMIP6) project of World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) sixth assessment report (AR6), first time from India. Another major contribution is the national climate change assessment report by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt. of India “Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region: A Report of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India. Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2. (Krishna et al., 2020)