A two-day National workshop on “Space based Information Support for Climate and Environment Studies” under National Information System for Climate Sciences (NICES) programme was conducted during July 18-19, 2022 at New Delhi.

Shri S. Somanath, Chairman, ISRO/Secretary DOS inaugurated the workshop. Dr. R. Krishnan, Director, IITM Pune was the guest of honour for the programme. Shri. Shantanu Bhatwadekar, Scientific Secretary, ISRO; Dr. Prakash Chauhan, Director, NRSC; and Dr. Rajashree V Bothale, Deputy Director, ECSA/NRSC were present during the inauguration.

The eminent scientists in Indian climate research community provided key inputs for future NICES activities through more than 20 talks. Around 120 participants from 45 institutes/organizations participated in the event.

The talks were organized in four plenary sessions deliberating climate and space based observations and satellite observations for climate change indicators. Expert talks focused the state of climate change over India, meteorological observations, space based climate observations. Contributed talks spanned land use land cover changes, forest ecosystem, Forest fire, water resource dynamics, snow and glacier melt runoff, glacial lake outburst floods, Himalayan cryosphere, Polar cryosphere, Himalayan geology, LST & heat wave, aerosol variability, greenhouse gas variability, meteorological observations, atmospheric lightning, extreme climate event, ocean climatic variables pertaining to Indian region, climate and environment studies over north-east regions of India. The sessions were chaired by Shri Shantanu Bhatawdekar, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, Dr. Kalachand Sain, Director, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun; Dr. Prakash Chauhan, Director, National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad & Dr. A. K. Patra, Director, National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Gadanki.

A poster exhibition was arranged during the workshop. Posters displayed NICES products, few studies from Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun. Student poster competition witnessed good participation. Ten student-posters were selected for display. Authors of three best posters (students from MNIT, Allahbad; University of Kashmir; and MGR institute, Chennai) were given the opportunity to present their work to gathering.

NICES programme was explained through presentation on NICES portal https://bhuvan-app3.nrsc.gov.in/data/download/index.php?c=p&s=NI&g=all , a video showcasing the information about all Essential Climate Variables and geophysical products, a 2-minute curtain raiser for the inaugural programme, NICES brochure and NICES booklet. Booklet and brochure were released during inaugural session by Chairman, ISRO.

A panel of experts discussed the road map for future of NICES after receiving the feedback and suggestions from the participants.

NICES Workshop Gallery