Centre for Atmospheric Studies

Welcome to the Centre for Atmospheric Studies (CAS). CAS was established in the year 2006 to carry forward the decades-long space science research program in this university with newer initiatives and now is one of the constituents of the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Our primary focus is research in the area of climate change and climate variability and its impact on the Environment (or Biosphere and Geosphere). We have a robust observational program of aerosol and trace gas thanks to generous support from the Indian Space Research Organisation, the DST and the University Grants Commission. Space weather is another area of prime focus in the Centre and we currently operate a chain of GNSS receivers in NE India and the only Ionosonde now operational since 2010 in the whole of east and northeast India. The ISRO and the DST support space research in CAS. We have also undertaken the task of the development of an Indigenous Ionosonde in collaboration with SAMEER, IIT Mumbai with financial support from DEITY. CAS, Dibrugarh University is one of the eight participating Centres /institutions in India for implementation of ISRO’s Space Science Promotion Scheme for 2009-2019. Student fellowships are awarded to two selected M. Sc. Physics students each year under this program. The majority of the student fellows have opted to pursue research in Atmospheric Science in the Centre and are either pursuing or have graduated with Ph. D degrees. Recently the Centre has participated in the Human and Institutional Capacity Building (HICAB) Network Programmes as part of the National Mission on Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) Strategic Programmes, Large Initiatives and Coordinated Action Enabler (SPLICE), CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAMME (CCP), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India (https://dst.gov.in/climate-change-programme)

We undertake collaborative research programs with national and international institutions and faculties from these institutions are supervising Ph. D students in the Centre. We offer Research fellowships to the students under the ongoing funded projects. Students get an exposure to International courses like Advanced Post Graduate diploma courses in Space and Atmospheric Sciences offered by the United Nations and organised by Centre for Space Science & Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP) in Physical Research Laboratory, and in the Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad followed by M.Tech. from Andhra University. A number of students have completed this course successfully. Further, couple of students have obtained Diploma in ‘European Research Course on Atmospheres’, from the Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France in recent years.

We publish in all prestigious atmospheric and space science journals and the total citation index has crossed the 2K mark. Numbers of alumni working in the field of Space and Atmospheric Sciences have now occupied senior scientist positions in ISRO and CSIR laboratories. The two recent alumni are currently working at the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa as Post Doctoral fellows. One of them was awarded the Fulbright-Kalam Climate research fellowship in the inaugural year. Another student has completed a tenure at the ICIMOD, Kathmandu. An Adjunct Faculty has been selected as the ‘Associate’ of the Indian Academy of Science, Bangalore in 2020 and was also awarded the Junior Associateship of the ICTP, Italy for the period 2015-2021.